SCHOFFER
547
SCHOLA
purpose of spreading among the faithful instructive
books written in a style that should prove attrac-
tive and intelligible even to the unlettered. Shortly
after the suppression of the Society he was chosen
by the Elector of Bavaria as his ecclesiastical coun-
cillor. An untiring champion of Christian morals
and the Catholic religion, Schoenberg, besides com-
piling prayer-books and editing educational works,
wrote several treatises on the fundamental truths of
religion, and many devotional and meditative books
and brochures designed to quicken the devotion of
the people to the Blessed Virgin and the Sacred
Heart. So successful was he in his apostleship of
the press that many of his writings — Sommervogel
mentions nearly forty in all — ran through five and
six editions. The following are perhaps his best
known works: "Die Zierde der Jugend"; "Der
hofliche Schiiler"; "Die Roligionsgriinde in ihren
ordentlichen Zusammenhange " ; "Der Santfmtithige
Christ"; " Wahrheitsgriindo des katholischen Haupt-
grundsatzes fiir die Unfehlbarkeit der Kirche".
Sommervogel, Bihl. de la C. de J., VII, 841; Hurter, Nomen- clalor. III, 243. JaMES A, CaHILL.
Schoffer, Peter, publisher and printer, b. at Gemsheim on the Rhine about 1425; d. at Mainz in 1503. As a cleric in minor orders, he was in Paris in 1451 working as a manuscript copyist. In 1455 he appeared as a witness at Mainz for Johannes Fust against G u t e n - berg. Later he married Fust's daughter, Chris- tine, and he was a partner of Fust in the pubUshing business until 1456, from that <latc up to 1503 iriiiting indepen- dently. Schoffer may have be- come an experi- enced printer as an assistant of Fust and perhaps of Gutenberg, but he had no share whatever either in the invention or in the improve- ment of typog- raphy, as has been claimed for him and his descend- ants; this is certain, notwithstanding the splendid impressions of the Psalters bearing his name and published in 1457 and 1459, the technical prep- aration of which has been ascribed to Gutenberg. The evident deterioration of books issued at the end of the century proves that Schoffer made no technical improvement in the art of printing. The work of Schoffer's press shows all the technical ex- cellence of his predecessors, but no advance. He did much for the development of the art of printing by estabUshing commercial relations beyond the bor- ders of Germany. But the management of his press was always conservative, and he pubhshed almcst exclusivel}^ works on civil law, canon law, and the- ology. He neither made improvements nor did he adopt the improvements of his contemporaries, such as reducing the size of his books, issuing popular books, etc. At the time of Schoffer's death many printers of Germany and Italy had long surpassed both his publications and his press. Schoffer's son John carried on the business, 1503-31. The son was a capable printer and exerted himself to improve the work produced by his press, but was unable to place himself in. the front rank of printers
of the time. A second son of Schoffer's, Peter the
younger, was a capable die-cutter and printer, and
engaged in his trade at Mainz, 1509-23; at Worms,
1512-29; at Strasburg, 1530-39; at Venice, 1541-42.
His son Ivo took up his quarters at Mainz, 1531-55,
and there carried on the printing business of his
grandfather.
Van der Linde, Gesrft. der Erfind. der Buchdruckkunst (Ber- lin, 1886) ; Hartwig, Festschrift zum 600 jahr. Geburtstage von J. Gutenberg (Mainz, 1900).
Heinrich Wilhelm Wallau.
Schola Cantorum, a place for the teaching and practice of ecclesiastical chant, or a body of singers banded together for the purpose of rendering the music in church. In the primitive Church the singing was done by the clergy, but, in order to set them free from this and enable them to give their attention more to what strictly pertained to their office, trained singers for the musical part of the liturgy were in- troduced. Pope Hilary (d. 468) is sometimes credited with having inaugurated the first schola cantorum, but it was Gregory the Great, as we are told in his life by John the Deacon, who established the school on a firm basis and endowed it. The house in which the schola was lodged was rebuilt in 844 by Pope Sergius II, who had himself been trained in it, as were also the popes Sergius I, Gregory II, Stephen III, and Paul I. This Roman school furnished the choir at most of the papal functions and was governed by an official called prior scholce cantorum or simply cantor. From Cardinal Thomasi's preface to the twelfth-century Vatican antiphonary, we learn that, amongst his other duties, he had "to point out to each individual, the day before, what rcsponsory he was to sing in the night office". From Rome the institution spread to other parts of the Church. Pepin, the father of Charlemagne, first introduced Roman chanters into France, placing them at Lyons. Charlemagne encouraged the work, and through his influence several other schools were established in his empire. That of Mctz became one of the most famous; other well-known ones wore at Hirschau Corbie, and St. Gall. In England the diffusion of the Roman chant was due chiefly to St. Benet Biscop and St. Wilfrid. Several of the cathedrals (e. g. York, Sarum, Hereford, and Worcester) and many of the abbeys (e. g. Glastonbury and Malmesbury) had important schola; cantorum attached to them. The Protestant Reformation put an end to the English schools, while abroad they seem to have died out when paid singers began to be employed in the churches, though perhaps the mattrise or cathedral choir-school of to-day may be regarded as their legitimate successor. In monasteries at the present day the name schola cantorum is often applied to cer- tain selected monks whose duty it is to chant the more elaborate portions of the liturgical music, such as the graduals and alleluias at Mass, the rest of the com- munity joining only in the simpler parts. The offi- cial in charge of such a schola is usually called the "precentor". In recent times the chief schools of ecclesiastical chant have been at Ratisbon, Mechlin, Einsiedeln, Beuron, and, greatest of all, Solesmes. In these the study of the IVISS. and the work of restoring the traditional chant of the Church have been pursued with much success. The schola of Solesmes was com- menced by Dom Gueranger and has been ably carried on by his successors, DD. Pothier and Mocquereau, The latter is precentor at Solesmes (now in the Isle of Wight, England), while the papal commission en- trusted with the work of preparing the official Vatican edition of the Chant is presided over by Abbot Pothier. (See GuiiRANGER, Prosper Louis Pas- chal; Solesmes.)
Armfield in Diet. Christ. Antiq. (London, 1880), a. v.; Ziegei^bad^b, Hist. lit. 0. S. B. (Augsburg, 1754).
G. Cyprian Alston.
