Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/37

25 CHAPTER II ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE 1 In a catechism by the Friar-Minor, Diedrich Coelde, printed in 1470, in the Low German dialect, the following injunction, amongst others, is laid down in a chapter on the duties of parents to their children : — ' Children should be sent betimes to school, to worthy teachers, in order that they may be taught godly fear and reverence, and be saved from learning sin and evil in the streets. Those parents are to blame who object to the just punishment of their children.' ' When children are not sent to school under the care of good schoolmasters,' writes Sebastian Brant in his ' Narrenschiff,' ' they grow up to be wicked blasphemers, gamblers and drunkards ; for, the begin- ning, the middle and the end of a good life is a good education.' Concerning the duties of children to their teachers, Johann Wolf writes in a manual of self-examination before the Holy Sacrament : ' Love, honour, and obedience are due to teachers as well as to parents ; 1 We possess but few authentic reports of the elementary schools at the commencement of the Middle Ages. However, enough remain to prove not only that such schools existed, but also how highly they were esteemed as mediums for Christian teaching and education, and how zealously the education of the people was encouraged by the Church.