SCHOOLS
557
SCHOOLS
become clearer. In the tenth century, in spite of the
disturbed conditions in the political world, learning
flourished in the great monasteries, such as that of St.
(lall (Switzerland). St. Maximin (Trier), and in the
cathedral schools, such as those of Reims and Lyons.
The greatest teachers of that time, Bruno of Cologne
and Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II), taught
not only the sacred but also the profane sciences. In
the eleventh century the school of Chartres, that of
Ste-Genevieve at Paris, and the numerous schools of
rhetoric and dialectic show that even in the higher
branches of learning, in spite of the fact that the
teachers were invariably clerics, the laymen were wel-
comed and were not denied education of the second-
ary kind. That, as historians have pointed out, the
references to popular and elementary education in the
local councils of the Church have not always been
preserved, is explained by the fact that elementary
Church schools were now an established fact. Eccle-
siastical authority intervened onlj^ whenever some
abu.se called for remedial legislation. Thus, the de-
cree of the Third Council of Lateran already referred
to (n. Ill) aimed at abohshing the custom of exacting
fees for instruction in the cathedral schools. There
were, naturally, details of arrangement to be deter-
mined, such as salary of teachers and supervision or
personal instruction on the part of the pastor. These
were provided in decrees, such as that of the Diocesan
Synod of St. Omer in 11S3 and that of Engelbert II,
Archbi.shop of Cologne, in 1270.
The history of education in England before the Reformation is tht^ stor}- of the efforts made in monas- tic, cath(Hlral, chantry, and parish scliools for the education of the laity as well as of the clergy. In the narrative of the sui)i)ression and confiscation of these foundations Leach (see bibliography) gives abundant documentary evidence to justify his as.sertion that "Grammar schools, instead of being comparatively modern, post-Reformation inventions, are among our most ancient institutions, some of them fur older than the Lord Mayor of London or the House of Commons" (p. 5). He estimates the number of grammar schools before the reign of Edward VI to have been "clo.se on two hundred", and these he con- siders to be merely "the survivors of a much larger host which have been lost in the storms of the past, and drowned in the seas of destruction" (ibid.). There were, he maintains, not only schools con- nected with the cathedral churches, monasteries, collegiate cliurchcs, hospitals, guilds, and chantries, but also indcpciidciit schools, in one of which "an old man was puid tliirtccn shillings and fourpencc by the Mayor, to teach j'oung cliildren their A B C" (p. 7). Lincoln, Chichester, and Wells were the prin- cipal cathedral schools. Beverley, Chester, Credi- ton, Ripon, Wiinborne, Warwick, Stafford, and Tamworth had important collegiate schools. At Evesham, Cirencester, and Lewes were the principal monastery schools at the eve of the Reformation, while at Oxford, Cambridge, Eton, and elsewhere were thirty-one college schools of grammar before the reign of Edward VI. The number of schools in pro- portion to the population of the country was rela- tively very great, and as far as it is possible for us now to judge the attendance, that, too, must have been relatively large. The history of education in Scot- land before the reformation is told in the first part of Grant's "History of the Burgh Schools of Scot- land". "Our earliest records", says that writer, "prove not only that schools existed, but that they were then invariably found in connection with the Church" (p. 2). He quotes documents for the foun- dation of schools in 1100, 1120, 1180, 1195, and cites in many instances i)aj)al approval and confirmation of educational establishments in the twelfth century. He is convinced that these institutions were intended not merely for clerics but also for young laymen
(ibid., p. 12), and he concludes his summary by ad-
mitting that "The scattered jottings collected in this
chapter show our obligation to the ancient Church
for having so diligently promoted our national educa-
tion — an education placed within the reach of all
cla.sses" (ibid., p. 72).
The educational institutions founded and supported by the Church in France, Germany, Italy, and other parts of Europe before the Reformation have, in part, been mentioned in the general account of monastic and cathedral schools. Specht (see bibliog- raphy) has produced documentary evidence to show the e.xtent to which laywomen were educated in the convent schools of the ninth and the following cen- turies; he has also shown that daughters of noble families were, as a rule, educated by private teachers who, for the most part, were clergymen. The asser- tion so frequently made that, during the Middle Ages, learning was considered out of place in a lay- man, that even elementary knowledge of letters was a prerogative of the clergy, is not sustained by a care- ful examination of historical records. It is true that there are passages in the popular literature of the Middle Ages in which the ignorant layman, who is well versed in the art of warfare and in the usages of polite society, affects to despise learning and to re- gard it as a monkish or ecclesiastical accomplishment. But, as Leon Maitre (see bibliography) asserts, "such ignorance was by no means systematic; it arose from the conditions of the times". "Knowledge", says a twelfth-century WTiter, "is not an exclusive privilege of the clergy, for many laymen are instructed in literature. A prince, whenever he can succeed in escaj)ing from the tumult of public affairs and from [the confusion of] constant warfare, ought to devote himself to the study of books" (P. L., CCIII, col. 149). The number of distinguished laymen and laywomen, emperors, kings, nobles, queens and princesses who, during the medieval era, at- tained prominence as scholars shows that the advice was not disregarded. The calumny recently re- affirmed that "the Church was not the mother, but rather the stepmother, of learning" is easily asserted, but is not so easily proved
The destruction of this vast and varied system of ecclesiastical legislation is a fact of general history. The schools, as a rule, disappeared with the institu- tions to which they were attached. The confiscation of the monasteries, the suppression of the benefices on which the chantries were founded, the removal of the guilds from the control of ecclesiastical authority, the supi)ression of cathedral and canonical chapters and the scfiucstration of their possessions by the State, were tlic iiniiicdiate cause of the cessation of this kind of educational activity on the part of the Church at the time of the Reformation and afterwards. In Protestant countries these events took place in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In Germany, a compromise was reached in some States by the recognition of both Protestant and Catholic "confessional" schools and the division of school funds, an arrangement which lasted until the begin- ning of the nineteenth century ; in France the work of confiscation began with the French Revolution; in Italy, Spain, and Portugal the suppression and spoha- tion have taken place within the last half-century and are still going on. Apart from the question of ele- mentary justice — the question of violation of a strict right to their own lands and funds, which the ecclesias- tical corporations possessed at the time their property was seized and their schools suppressed — there arises now the question of the right to teach, the right of the Church to found and maintain private schools, and the alleged exclusive right of the State to educate.
VII. The fundamental principles of canon law •bearing on these questions may be stated as follows: (1) the Church, being a perfect society, has the right
