Part 5 (1/2)

We ht if the use of the term ”school” could be restricted to those cases in which the erection of a school-house constituted a definite and objective sign of the existence of a school, and to es of teacher and pupils as were held otherwise If this suggestion could be adopted investigations into the origin of schools would become much more definite and valuable To illustrate this stateebert in 631 ”instituit scolam, in qua pueri litteris erudirentur”[166] What does this phrase precisely ebert founded a monastery or a church, then we should not be in any doubt on the matter We have not been able to trace in any edition of the writings of Bede any interpretation of ”scola,” as the various editors take it for granted that itswith the passage in Bede we have quoted, assumes that a school existed at Canterbury in connection with the monastery of SS Peter and Paul, and that the school which Bishop Felix established at the wish of King Sigebert was probably attached to the prilian Cathedral which had been erected at Dunwich, then a town on the Suffolk coast, but now annihilated by the sea[167] But neither at Canterbury nor at Dunould a specific building for the school be provided Consequently the phrase frolish educational history, simply means that certain priests, who had obtained so, were specifically assigned the duty of teaching the Latin language in classes held in the church buildings, to those who ht care to attend

We have not found it possible in this thesis to distinguish carefully between a ”class” and a ”school” We are obliged to content ourselves with indicating the danger that exists of reading into thecommonly applied to the terraradually superseded that of ”letters” as the specified purpose for which schools were founded So far as England is concerned, the first occasion on which the actual words ”scola grammatice” occur, is in a document of the latter half of the eleventh century[168] The ter to the necessity of distinguishi+ng graher faculties in the universities ”The first actual use of the terlish appears to be in 1387 AD when John of Trevisa, translating froramer scole'

held at Alexandria”[169] By the fourteenth century therefore the phrase ”grammar school” had entered into ordinary colloquial speech

But what does this terht bay of the great west doors of Chartres Cathedral are to be found statues of the Seven Liberal Arts With reference to these statues, Dr

Clerval in his work on ”Chartres, sa Cathedrale et ses Monuments,”

writes:--

”Les autres cordons representent les sept Arts liberaux qui ornaient l'esprit de la Vierge symbolises chacun par une femme portant les attributs de chaque science, et par un homme, le corypliee de cette science, assis devant un pupitre, avec plules Ainsi au bas du premier cordon de droite, c'est la Musique frappant trois cloches avec un auche en bas, c'est la Dialectique, portant un lizard subtil et un sceptre, et dessous Aristotle; puis la Rhetorique, discourant, et dessous Ciceron; la Geometrie avec un compas, et dessous Euclide; l'Arithmetique (en redescendant) avec un livre, et dessous Boece ou Pythagore; l'Astronoardant le Ciel et portant un boisseau, et dessous Plotonee, portant une lunette; enfin la Graes deux jeunes ecoliers lisant a ses pieds, et au-dessous Priscien ou Donat Ces representations des Arts tres curieuses sont les plus anciennes avec celles de Laon Elles s'expliquent a Chartres par les ecolatres de cette Eglise, specialement Thiery, auteur de l'Heptabuclion, vers 1140”[170]

This passage ned to Graests that everything which was not eorammar, _ie_ nearly the whole of the hurammar was synonymous with the study of ”letters” so far as the terrammar did not possess this connotation

This was due to the fact that a study of letters was not possible until a mastery of Latin had been acquired, and consequently it resulted that the terrammar school” was applied to denote a place in which instruction was given in ”Donat” or ”Priscian” Donat was a Roman rhetorician rote _Ars Graraenerally used elementary text-book on the subject In its abbreviated forht or nine pages Priscian was a grammarian who flourished in the early part of the sixth century, and who published, about 526, his _Institutiones Graraarded as the leading and authoritative text-book on the subject

We may also note here that classical Latin literature was rarely used for school purposes This was the result of the attitude of the early Christian Fathers towards these writings We have previously pointed out that this classical literature was closely associated with pagan beliefs and practices, and consequently was not regarded as suitable for introduction into classes taught by Christian priests Even as late as 1518, the statutes of Dean Colet prescribed that the books to be studied in his school were to be the works of such ”auctours Christian as lactantius prudentius and proba and sedulius and Juvencus and Baptisa Mantuanus”

This analysis will help us to realise that when the terrammar school”

is used with reference to the schools of Medieval England, what is generally iven in ”Donat,” and in the power of speaking Latin If advanced as attempted, then Priscian would be studied and the works of ”Christian authors” read

FREE

We next pass to consider the term ”free”--an epithet which usually accoiven rise to a certain aiven to this term in 1862 by Dr Kennedy, headmaster of Shrewsbury School, in a paper which he submitted to the Public Schools' Co was that the term ”free” denoted a ”school free froe, a uments in support of his contention

(1) ”Most of the schools being then gratuitous, such a fact would hardly have been chosen to give the distinctive title of these schools”

(2) ”That free school is in Latin 'schola libera' and that 'liber' appears never at any period to be used by itself to ratuitous”[171]

(3) ”That whatever franchise or i to ordinary usage, be an iovernors, not for the scholars”

(4) ”That the nearest analogies are 'free town,' 'free chapel,' and that these mean free from the jurisdiction of the sheriff and of the bishop respectively”

(5) ”That the ies) was not at all compatible with the title of free school”[172]

On the other hand, Mr Leach e fees and that the schools which were described as ”free”

graes were made[173] He quotes the case of the Newland Grammar School which was founded under licence in e sufficiently lerned in the arte of grarammer scole ther half-free for ever; that is to saie to take of scolers lernynge grae lettres and to rede, 4d the quarter, within a house there called the chauntrie house or scoole house”

In replying to the suggestions of Dr Kennedy ould point out that the nature of the control exercised by bishops, ht as to be practically non-existent Consequently, to make the fact of such freedom the distinctive epithet of such schools seems scarcely to be warranted Moreover, these ”free” schools were founded as a general rule either by bishops personally or by ecclesiastical persons or by persons in the closest syhly improbable that they would deliberately found an institution which was to be ”free” from association with the Church

A similar criticism applies to the contention advanced by Mr Leach As Dr Kennedy points out, the official schools of the Church were gratuitous froin Then, as we shall show in a subsequent chapter, the schools in which fees were charged were as a general rule those which may be classed as ”private adventure” schools Payment of fees in Church schools is probably due to the custos to their teachers at certain times,[174] and that in course of time this custom would become an unwritten law The point ish to emphasise here is that the official schools of the Church were always ”free schools” in the sense of being free fronised fact that no need existed to apply the teruishi+ng between one grammar school and another In other words, our contention is that all the Church schools were ”gratuitous” whether or not they were described as free schools

It is therefore necessary for us to advance another hypothesis to account for the use of the terest that the term ”free” means ”open to all comers,” _ie_ that admission to the school was not restricted to any particular social grade or to those ere preparing for any particular profession or to those ere living in any particular locality A free school, in fact, denotes a public school The following reasons in support of this suggestion may be advanced