The authors of the first dossier are of great importance. Let's stop briefly on them: it will be easy to appreciate the intellectual style of the magazine, a mirror of the Gregorian yesterday as today. The first article (in Latin) is signed by Card. Louis Billot, S.I., who then had problems with the Holy See because of his links with Action française: a French extreme right-wing movement that, animated by Charles Maurras, used the Catholic faith for its political ends; Pius XI condemned this movement in 1926; therefore, in 1927, the title of cardinal was removed from Fr. Billot, who accepted the decision and died pitifully in a country near Rome in 1931. The articles that Billot, professor of speculative theology, published in Gregorianum for three years aimed mainly at clarifying the relationship between the speculative demonstration of Creation and the proposal of Genesis; the author intended to strongly oppose the Protestant theses filtered into Catholic modernist authors. The second article (also in Latin), on lies and human relations, was by Arthur Vermeerch, S.I., professor of canon law and moral theology, author of law manuals that were reprinted several times. Will it not be legitimate to lie from time to time to save a greater good? What does the theological tradition say about this? Will there not be some speculative evidence of the righteousness required by tradition? In the following years, Vermeersch published in Gregorianum other important texts of moral theology, for example on equity, in 1930/3. Then comes a long text (in Italian) by Ottavio Marchetti, S.I., then a young professor of ascetic theology, on the perfection of Christian life according to St. Thomas; ascetic and mystical theology was about to take a new impetus at the time.

This is followed by an article (in Latin) by Bernhard Jansen, S.I., professor of modern philosophy, specialized in Kant (on which he then presented several articles in Gregorianum), on the definition of the soul dictated by the Council of Vienna (1312); another (in Italian), on "Metaphysics and experience in cosmology", by Paul Geny, S.I., professor of epistemology and metaphysics, good connoisseur of the history of philosophy on which he wrote a manual often reprinted, without forgetting his manual of systematic philosophy; Geny intended, in his lectures, to articulate the whole of philosophical discourse along a development that culminates in metaphysics, rather than making metaphysics a previous treatise, in the manner of Christian Wolff's ontology, a manner however usual in scholasticism (so there was no lack of criticism to Geny, among other things by his colleague Charles Boyer). Finally, an article (in Italian) by Cesare Goretti Miniati, S.I. on "Coscienza e fatti pichi-ci" (Consciousness and psychiatric facts) was published; here, the reflection was as much psychological as pastoral.

In the following years, many authors who published in Gregorianum enjoyed great authority in the theological world and also in the Holy See. It must be recognized today that their thinking was very determined by the circumstances of the theological knowledge of the time, particularly by the hierarchical mode of the ecclesiastical structure; but it must be remembered first of all that a criticism of this kind applies to everyone, always, all the more so to the Jesuits who intend to live in a special relationship of fidelity and obedience to the living Pope. Nevertheless, the thought was not one-size-fits-all. For example, Guido Mattiussi, S.I., author of an article on idealism in Italy in the second issue of 1920 and then of many other texts on similar subjects, insisted that Catholic theological teaching be linked to that Thomism which in 1879, with the encyclical Aeterni Patris, Leo XIII had elevated to the status of thought most suited to Catholic rationality. But what Thomism? Mattiussi, who at the time actually resided in Padua (he had left the Gregorian in 1915 because of his age), had written the famous 24 Thomist theses that the "Roman Congregation for Ecclesiastical Studies" would have liked to impose universally in 1914 as necessary criteria for orthodoxy. But he was not sure that these theses actually and in the best way expressed the exact thought of Aquinas. Mattiussi published in Gregorianum, in 1924, a praise of the "Excellence of the Angelic Doctrine", an introduction to a Thomist congress held in Gregorian. But other authors, professors of the Gregorian, were more subtle; the aforementioned Boyer, for example, proposed a reading of Aquinate much influenced by his expertise in Augustine, even though he was secretary of the Pontifical Accade-mia Romana of Saint Thomas Aquinas; author of a famous manual of systematic philosophy (Cursus philosophiae, first edition completed in 1934), Boyer offered more than 20 articles to Gregorianum between 1924 and 1950. Theoretical and logical disputes then dwelt in Gregorianum; Boyer himself vigorously criticized Geny because, according to scholasticism, metaphysics must precede any philosophical treatise (and not come later) for the reason that it is the founder of every discourse. Overall, however, the tone of the magazine was proactive and positive, always civilized, in keeping with the pontifical task of serving the unity of the Church.

Some writers of Gregorianum have participated in a fruitful way in the progress of theological reflection. For example, the theology of the Eucharist, during the years preceding the Second World War, received an important boost from Maurice de la Faille, S.I., of whom many works can be read in Gregorianum from 1920 to 1930. Adhémar d'Alès, S.I., professor in Paris and organizer of the publication of the Dictionnaire d'Apologétique de la Foi Catholique, a work destined for great success, offered many patristic texts to Gregorianum between 1922 and 1931. Similarly Franz Ehrle, S.I., who then lived at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, died a cardinal, a valuable historian still today on questions of medieval scholasticism, wrote some articles in 1920 and 1922. The texts published in Gregorianum, it can be seen, were therefore of both speculative and positive or historical theology. The magazine thus illustrated the way the University worked and its seriousness. Indeed, some professors of the Gregorian (for example Sebastian Tromp, S.I., authors from 1933 to 1942 of many articles on the ecclesiology of Bellarmino, S.I.) were able to publish under some prestigious pseudonym (if one can speak of prestige in this case), for example "Pius XII" (it is rumored that Tromp was one of the principal editors of the encyclical Mistici corporis of 1943); Pope Pacelli in fact had great respect for the professors of the University where he studied. They were, however, hard times: despite the political and war events, Gregorianum was maintained. Charles Boyer, S.I. was director of all the magazines of the Gregorian in 1935, helped for Gregorianum first by Gioachino Salaverri (pathologist), then by Georges Delannoye, S.I. (professor of metaphysics), who became the full director in 1945; he was replaced in 1951 by Zoltán Alszeghy, S.I. (professor of dogmatic theology), then from 1954 to 1958 by Filippo Selvaggi, S.I. (professor of cosmology).

Before going further in time, we note that Gregorianum, during his early years, usually published articles not concerted with each other, but every now and then, texts dealing with common issues were put together. For example, in 1921/4, there is a series of studies on Bellarmino, who was rector of the Roman College (it was the ancient name of the present Gregorian) from 1592 to 1594; this publication was intended to celebrate the third centenary of his death. Similarly, the first issue of 1930 is entirely dedicated to Saint Augustine, with an introductory article by Paul Galtier, H.I., professor of sacramental theology, attentive to the themes of the "indwelling" of God in man and the divine conscience of Jesus. Again, in 1940, since the Society of Jesus was celebrating the fourth centenary of the officialisation of its foundation, Gregorianum published a double whole number on the Gregorian, its foundation, its storia and on some professors who made it famous (the same editorial concept recently returned, in 2004/1).  In the only issue of 1945, a 148-page notebook, the fourth birthday of the Council of Trent is celebrated, which actually began in 1545.