Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/38

26 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE the schoolmaster who has taught you in your youth has become your spiritual father. Gold and silver cannot repay him ; for the things of the spirit are higher and nobler than those of the body. The money he has received for his instruction may long since have been spent in procuring bodily necessities, while what he has taught you remains a possession for ever. ' The penitent before confession,' continues Wolf, ' should examine himself carefully as to whether he still harbours any resentment against his teachers for punishments inflicted.' The teachers themselves were enjoined to co-operate with the Church in the catechetical instruction of the young. In an excellent handbook of instruction and edification entitled the ' Seelenfiihrer ' ('Soul's Guide'), which appeared in 1498, schoolmasters are exhorted to instruct the children in all Christian teaching and in the commandments of God and of the Church. ' They should assist the priests and supplement whatever they cannot do by preaching and other spiritual functions.' Compulsory education was unknown, but from many records preserved in towns and villages we find that the schools were everywhere well attended. In Xanten, on the Lower Ehine, in 1491, the master of a school for reading and writing complained that he and his assistant were not sufficient for the number of scholars, and begged for another under-master, where- upon the town council provided him, and also another school in the town, with a second assistant, stipulating, however, that they must arrange with the parents for the additional salary. In the records of Wesel for the year 1494 we find that five teachers were employed ' to instruct the