Education in England in the Middle Ages Part 16

Henry showed his interest in the school by his issue of a warrant in 1446, in which, after reciting that he had founded a college at Eton for "seventy scholars whose duty it is to learn the science of grammar and sixteen choristers whose duty likewise it shall be, when they have been sufficiently instructed in singing, to learn grammar, also a master teacher in grammar and an usher to teach the aforesaid boys, scholars and choristers,"[612] he proceeded to declare that "it shall not be lawful for anyone, of whatever authority he may be, at any time to presume to keep, set up, or found any such public grammar school in the town of Windsor or elsewhere within the s.p.a.ce of ten English miles from our said Royal College."[613]

This warrant is specially significant in two respects. One is, that it shows that the inst.i.tution, founded by Henry VI., was not intended to differ in any essential respect from the other local grammar schools which existed in various parts of the country. On the contrary, steps were taken to prevent opposition. There was a real danger that the gratuitous character of the instruction given at Eton might tempt masters to open fee paying schools, with the inevitable result that the social prestige of the school would be lowered. The other significant fact arises from the use of the phrase "public grammar school." This is the first use of the term in this sense which we have been able to trace, and it is probable that we have here the first occasion on which the word is employed as an alternative for "free," which denotes, as we have explained, that the school was open to all comers.

It is not necessary that we should consider any further the history of the public schools. This subject has already been fully treated by others, notably by Mr. Leach in his _History of Winchester College_, and by Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte in his _History of Eton College_.

We may, however, note three respects in which Winchester first, and subsequently Eton differed from the scholastic inst.i.tutions, which had previously been established.

1. The scale on which Winchester College was carried out, clearly differentiates it from all earlier foundations. The number of scholars for whom Wykeham provided, and the value of the endowments attached to the school, mark a considerable advance on what had been attempted previously.

2. It was a new idea to a.s.sociate a school in a district remote from a university centre with a college at Oxford. Rashdall points out that Robert Egglesfield, the founder of Queen's College, had hoped to have had at Oxford a school of boys in connection with his college. This proposal was not carried out. That which Egglesfield simply proposed for Oxford, Wykeham actually accomplished at Winchester.[614]

3. Winchester College is the first example of a boarding school, pure and simple. Collegiate churches had previously provided for the gratuitous instruction of scholars, but the real object of the establishment of a collegiate church was that divine wors.h.i.+p should be rendered in an effective and dignified manner. Endowments had previously been provided for the feeding and lodging of scholars, but this was to be effected in connection with an existing charitable inst.i.tution. At Winchester, for the first time, an inst.i.tution was established for the combined purpose of teaching and of maintaining scholars, and for those purposes alone. "The really important new departure was taken, a real step in advance made, when Wykeham made his school a separate and distinct foundation.... The corporate name of 'Warden and scholars, clerks' stamped the school and the schoolboys as the aim and object of the foundation."[615]

One other question must be considered. The great public schools to-day are attended by the sons of wealthy parents: were these schools founded originally for children of the social grade who now attend them? The foundation deeds state explicitly that they were established for "pauperes et indigentes scolares."

Mr. Leach writes vehemently on the subject. "A great deal of discussion has taken place, and much excellent eloquence run to waste on the qualification of 'poor and needy.' It was alleged ... that there had been a robbery of the poor in the matter of endowed schools; that the persons ent.i.tled, under the founder's statutes, to the benefits of Winchester College, were the poor in the sense of the poor law, the dest.i.tute poor, the gutter poor, or, at least, the poor labouring cla.s.ses. There is not, I believe, a t.i.tle or a shred of justification for any such allegation in the case of any public or endowed grammar school founded before 1627."[616]

The following arguments are advanced by Mr. Leach in support of the views he enunciates:--

(1) He urges that the test of poverty from the school point of view, was the oath which every scholar had to take on reaching fifteen years of age: "I have nothing whereby I know I can spend beyond five marks a year."[617]

Now, as there were at this date sixty-seven livings in the diocese of Winchester below this value, and as 1 6s. 8d. was the pay of a skilled artisan of that date, Mr. Leach maintains that the possession of 3 6s.

8d. was a very considerable income for a boy.

In reply it may be pointed out that the oath would provide for extreme cases only. In this connection, it may be mentioned that it was proposed, towards the close of the reign of Henry VIII., to establish a free grammar school in connection with Exeter Cathedral. Forty of the scholars of this school were to be admitted without making any payment for their instruction and, in addition, they were to receive a s.h.i.+lling a week for the purpose of paying for "their commons within the citie." Now, the test of poverty to qualify the candidates for this position was, that their parents were not to be in receipt of a higher income than 300 a year, possibly equal to 5,000 to-day.[618] If we a.s.sume that the money payments of the opening years of the twentieth century were forty times the value of such payments in the fourteenth century, even then the extreme limit of the income of a candidate for admission to Winchester was 133 6s. 8d. of modern money. It is, therefore, obvious that the cla.s.s of boy for which Winchester College was intended must have been of a lower social scale than that for which the proposed cathedral grammar school at Exeter was to be established.

(2) By a clause which forms a postscript to Rubric XVI., it was provided that "sons of n.o.ble and powerful persons ... to the number of ten _might_ be instructed and informed in grammar within the college, without charge to the college." This clause Mr. Leach describes as containing the "germ"

of the public school system, and he claims that he has traced among the early commoners of the college "young n.o.blemen, scions of county families and relations of judges and chancery officials."

We contend that this does not apply to the case at all, inasmuch as "parlour boarders," as Mr. Leach himself points out,[619] had frequently been received in monastic houses. Even apart from the fact that the details which he gives are meagre, and that his conclusions are by no means demonstrated, it may be maintained that the presence of wealthy boys at school, under special circ.u.mstances, does not invalidate the contention that the boys normally found there were the "poor and needy." Thus Dr.

Hastings Rashdall, in speaking of the students at the university, states that "there was the scion of the princely or n.o.ble house who lived in the style to which he was accustomed at home, in a hostel of his own with a numerous 'familia' including poorer but well born youths who dressed like him.... At the other end of the social ladder there was the poor scholar, reduced to beg for his living, or to become the servitor of a college, or of a master or well-to-do student."[620] If the poor, in the sense of those who had to beg for a living or earn it, whilst they were at college, by manual labour, were not excluded from the university, why should it be a.s.sumed that they did not rank among the "pauperes et indigentes scolares" for whom Winchester College was expressly founded?

We may also point out that it was not customary, at this time, for boys of good family, or even the sons of wealthy and prosperous merchants and tradesmen, to be educated by being sent to school. The instances which may be given are few and inconclusive. The usual practice adopted for the education of these young people, as we have shown, was either by sending them to a great household or, at a later date, by having a private tutor in the house. Evidence may also be adduced to show that youths of good social standing rarely proceeded to the universities at this time. Thus Dr. Furnivall points out that, up to the close of the sixteenth century, only three names of n.o.blemen and nine of sons of knights are mentioned in Cooper's _Athenae Cantabrigienses_ and only nineteen men of n.o.ble or knightly birth in Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_.[621]

We may next pa.s.s to consider the evidence for the contention which we advance, that, when Wykeham built his college, he intended it for those who were too poor to pay for an education, irrespective of their social position, and that the term "poor" did not exclude the children of men who were members of the labouring cla.s.ses of the community.

(1) As we have reiterated so frequently, the actual term used in the foundation deed is "pauperes et indigentes." Mr. Leach maintains that this simply means the "relatively poor," the poor relations of the n.o.bility, or the children of prosperous merchants. His contention seems to be an unwarranted extension of the meaning of the phrase, and it will not be possible to quote from any charter or doc.u.ment of the time in which this special meaning is a.s.signed to the term.

(2) Even sixty years later, at the foundation of Eton College, when the character of Winchester School would be definitely fixed, when King Henry VI. desired to establish a foundation which should exceed that of Wykeham, he a.s.sociated with the school an almshouse for "twenty-five poor and weakly men." The a.s.sociating of an almshouse with the school marks the purpose of the school as a charitable endowment for the lower cla.s.ses of the community.

(3) The middle cla.s.s of the fifteenth century was a wealthy cla.s.s. In the eleventh century, there were only two social grades in England, the n.o.bility and the various cla.s.ses of tenants. The middle cla.s.s, which gradually grew up, won its way through its wealth. Wealthy and prosperous merchants would seek to emulate the n.o.bility of the land, and send their sons to the houses of n.o.bles for their education or--at the least--to provide them with a tutor. It may also be added that the clergy of the period, who were practically the professional cla.s.s, were celibates.

(4) Mr. Leach himself, undesignedly, applies examples to show that the sons of serfs attended schools. He instances that in 1295, Walter, the son of Reginald the carpenter, "was licensed to attend school" subject to the payment of a fine.[622] Similarly, in 1344, a villein at Coggeshall in Ess.e.x was fined for sending his son to school without license. At Harrow in 1384, a villein was deprived of his horse for sending his son to school without license. Mr. Leach continues "the fourteenth century manor rolls all over the country are dotted with fines for sending boys, 'ad scolas clericales,' to schools to become clerks."[623] Now, it would appear to us obvious, that if some serfs sent their sons to schools after paying a license, others would attempt to do so without payment and would probably succeed in doing so. But the point which is established, without doubt, is that it was customary for children of parents of the lowest social grade to attend school.

When these arguments are fairly considered, it is claimed that the inst.i.tutions of Eton and Winchester were originally intended for boys whose parents were "poor and needy"--and not simply for scions of the n.o.bility or the sons of prosperous merchants. The only condition of admission, practically, was that these boys would subsequently proceed to the universities, in order that their course of preparation for the priesthood might be completed.

CHAPTER VII.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGES, COLLEGES AND COLLEGIATE CHURCHES IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES.

In the early chapters of this work, we have shown that the work of evangelising England was simultaneously the work of the regular and of the secular clergy. The regular clergy were those who had taken certain vows and who shared a common inst.i.tutional life. The secular clergy fall into one or other of two cla.s.ses. In the one cla.s.s, we place those who worked in the various parishes of which they were placed in charge; in the other cla.s.s, were certain bodies of clergy who were organised into communities, termed colleges, and who served a church in common.

About the beginning of the twelfth century, there was in this country a general movement towards monasticism. Some of the existing secular cathedrals and collegiate churches were made monastic, and, in addition, there was a great increase in the number of monasteries. This practice continued until about the middle of the thirteenth century, when the beginning of the collegiate system at the universities manifested itself.

The tendency to build new monasteries gradually ceased. Henceforth, we read of the establishment of colleges and collegiate churches.

One of the earliest instances of the building of a university college is that of the "College de Dix-huit" which was established at Paris, in 1180, by Joisey of London on his way home from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His sole object was that of making some provision for the scholar clerks who were studying at Paris.[624]

In England, the earliest instance of a university college was the one established at Salisbury by Bishop Giles of Bridport. Ever since 1209, there had been a university at Salisbury, which was augmented by a migration from Oxford in 1238.[625] In connection with this university, Bishop Giles, in 1262, set up a hostel for "the perpetual reception and maintenance of a warden, for the time being, two chaplains and twenty poor, needy, well behaved and teachable scholars serving G.o.d and the Blessed Nicholas there, and there living, studying and becoming proficient in the Holy Scriptures and the liberal arts."[626]

The origin and development of the university colleges in connection with the universities of Oxford and Cambridge has been so fully dealt with by various writers that little more than a pa.s.sing reference is necessary here. Dr. Hastings Rashdall describes Walter de Merton as "the true founder" of the English college system. In 1264,[627] he founded at Maldon "The House of Merton's Scholars" "for the perpetual maintenance of twenty scholars living in the schools at Oxford, or elsewhere where a university might happen to flourish and for the maintenance of two or three ministers of the altar of Christ living in the same house."[628] The idea of this founder, originally, was the provision of funds for the education of his nephews or the descendants of his parents, or (failing a sufficient number of these) of other "honest and capable young men."[629] The men supported by these funds were to hire a hall and live together as a community in the university. In 1274, a new code of statutes for the control and regulation of the foundation was issued. Here, in the first of the English colleges, the monastic inst.i.tutions form the model which was imitated. At the head of the inst.i.tution was an official corresponding to the abbot, next come certain officials who resembled the various officers of a monastery; these include the "Vicenarii" who were placed over every twenty scholars, and the "Decani" over every ten scholars. The scholars corresponded to the monastic novices. The scheme for the control of the boys (because some of the scholars might often be only thirteen or fourteen years of age)[630]

resembles in its general spirit the regulations of Lanfranc for the oblates and novices school at Canterbury.[631]

The similarity between a monastery and Merton's foundations manifests itself still more clearly when we realise that he even provided for a cla.s.s which would correspond to the oblates. He enacted that "if any little ones of the kindred aforesaid becoming orphans or otherwise through their parents poverty want maintenance while they are receiving primary instruction in the rudiments, then the warden shall have them educated in the house aforesaid."[632]

The example set by Walter de Merton was followed by Bishop Balsham of Ely in his foundation of the first college at Cambridge in 1280. He placed some poor scholars in the Hospital of St. John "to live together and to study in the university of Cambridge according to the rule of the scholars of Oxford who are called Merton's."[633] The experiment did not prove a success because "in process of time from various causes, matter of dissension had often arisen between the brethren of the same house and the scholars aforesaid,"[634] as a result of which the scholars were moved outside the town "and translated to the inns by St. Peter's Church"[635]

which was appropriated to them, and in consequence the college received the name of Peterhouse by which it is still known.

We must leave here the subject of the establishment of university colleges and pa.s.s to consider the colleges of secular canons which were rapidly founded in all parts of the country. The _Monasticon_[636] gives a list of twenty-six establishments, described as collegiate churches, and of one hundred and sixty-five, which are described simply as colleges, exclusive of the cathedral churches. We are underestimating the number when we state that, outside the universities, there were two hundred colleges or collegiate churches in this country. The term "college" or "collegiate church" may be used indifferently; both imply an organisation of secular priests or of secular priests and scholars founded for the purpose "ad orandum et studiendum."

One of the first of the collegiate churches to be established subsequent to the Conquest was that of Howden in Yorks.h.i.+re. The church was intended at one time to form the endowment of a monastery,[637] but in 1266 Bishop Robert of Durham caused it to become a college of secular priests.[638]

The remaining records of this church are meagre and relate mainly to the endowments which it gradually received.

Howden Collegiate Church serves to ill.u.s.trate the difficulties in connection with tracing the educational history of this country, and also the educational significance of the collegiate churches. As we have just remarked, the records of this church are extremely meagre, and if we were dependent upon them alone we would naturally conclude that no educational interest was attached to this inst.i.tution. A different interpretation is put upon the matter when we examine a Durham register of the period.[639]

Here we find records of scholastic appointments to this church, _e.g._ to a song school in 1393, to a grammar school in the same year, to a reading and song school in 1394, to a reading and song school in 1401, to a reading and song school in 1402, to a grammar school in 1403, to a grammar and reading school in 1409, to a song and reading school in 1412, separate appointments for reading and song in 1426, whilst the last record is that of J. Armandson, B.A., who was appointed "ad informandum pueros in lectura et grammatica" during the good pleasure of the prior.

We have given these various references to the appointments because they show that the collegiate churches, as a general rule, regarded it as one of their definite functions to provide educational facilities for those who cared to avail themselves of them. For the purpose of demonstrating this statement more fully, we now proceed to give a series of examples of the establishment of collegiate churches.

In 1267 the collegiate church of St. Thomas the Martyr was founded at Glasney near Penrhyn, in Cornwall, by Bishop Bromes...o...b..of Exeter.[640] We should not know anything about the educational work carried on at this church were it not for the return made to the commissioners under the Chantries' Act of 1547. The Continuation Certificate stated that a school was to continue at Glasney because it had previously been kept by "one of the said vicars scolemaster ... for the which the people maketh great lamentacione and it is mete to have another lerned man, for there is muche youthe in the same Towne."[641] This college is particularly interesting, as it is one of the few places of which records are available where provision was made for teaching the first rudiments of learning. It is stated that:--

"John Pownde, bell rynger there, of the age of 30 yeres, hathe for his salarye ther 40/-, as well for teachynge of pore mens children there ABC as for ryngynge the Bells 40/-."[642]

Pa.s.sing next to the college founded in 1337-8 at Ottery St. Mary in Devons.h.i.+re by Bishop Grandison, we find the first instance of a collegiate church where the charters of the inst.i.tution provide that the establishment should include "a Master of Music" and a "Master of Grammar."[643] The chantry return stated that "Syr John Chubbe preste, beyng scholemaster ther" received an annual stipend of 10.[644]

A college of secular priests was founded at Raveningham in Norfolk in 1350; this was moved to Mettingham Castle in 1382. This college also made the usual provision for education.[645] For a time the boys a.s.sociated with this college seem to have attended the grammar school at Beccles.[646]

A foundation, which was quasi-collegiate, but which may be considered as the precursor of the non-residential grammar schools which subsequently became common, dates from 1384. It was founded at Wotton-under-Edge by Katherine, Lady Berkeley, who gave certain lands for the provision of a schoolhouse and the maintenance of "a master and two poor scholars clerks living college-wise therein."[647] The priest-schoolmaster was to act as chaplain at the Manor house of the foundress, and to celebrate "for the healthy estate of us ... and for our souls when we shall have pa.s.sed from this light."[648] Arrangements were made for the appointment of the master of the school as vacancies arose. It was also required that the master "shall kindly receive all scholars whatsoever, howsoever and whencesoever coming for instructions in the said art of grammar, and duly instruct them in the said art, without exacting, claiming or taking from them any advantage for their labour in the name of stipend or salary, so that the masters aforesaid could not be accused of solicitation."[649] The regulations relating to the scholars provide that they "shall not be set by the master for the time being to do any office or service, but shall be compelled continually to devote their time to learning and study."[650]

Another similar small college was that of Bredgar in Kent which was founded in 1393 by eight persons, chief among whom was Robert de Bredgar.

The licence to found the college,[651] merely states the usual purpose of praying for the good estate of the founders while living, and for their souls, when they have pa.s.sed from this light, and also for the souls "omnium fidelium defunctorum." We obtain further knowledge of the intentions of the founders from a study of the "Statuta et Ordinationes pro meliori Gubernatione ejusdem."[652] It is not necessary for us to consider these statutes in detail here, though they emphasise considerably the educational aspect of the foundation. One of these statutes runs:--

"Volo et ordino, quod nullus capella.n.u.s ad capellanium dicti collegi admittatur nisi tunc sciat bene legere, bene construere, et bene cantare; nullus praeficiatur clericus scolaris dicti collegii, nisi tempore praesentationis hujusmodi bene legere et competenter cantare sciat."

The same year in which Bredgar College was founded witnessed the establishment of a college at Pleshy, in Ess.e.x, by Thomas, Duke of Gloucester. The foundation was to consist of a master, eight secular priests, two clerks, and two choristers.[653] The licences for the foundation of the college do not, as usual, mention anything about teaching, but the return to the chantry commissioners, 1547-8, states that a priest, who kept a free grammar school, was attached to the college.[654] William Courtney, Archbishop of Canterbury, founded in 1396 a college of secular priests on a large scale at Maidstone in Kent. A hospital, which had been founded in 1260 by a previous Archbishop of Canterbury, was taken to form the nucleus of the new college. The parish church was utilised as the collegiate church. The various licences, which authorised the foundation of the college,[655] do not refer to education, but we know that provision for teaching was made because at the dissolution of the college, the town council bought from Edward VI. the right to keep school.[656]

The church of Hemmingborough, in Yorks.h.i.+re, was made collegiate in 1426, with a provost or warden, three prebendaries, six vicars choral and six clerks.[657] The king's licence for the foundation gives the usual reason for its establishment stating that there was to be in the church "quoddam collegium de uno praeposito sive custode et caeteris prebendaris, vicariis, clericis, et ministris, qui divina in dicta ecclesia celebrent, pro salubri statu nostro, dum vivimus, et pro anima nostra, c.u.m ab hac luce subtracti fuerimus."[658] There is a record of the prior of Durham appointing a master to the school in 1394,[659] so that in all probability educational facilities were provided by the college.