Part 16 (1/2)

Henry showed his interest in the school by his issue of a warrant in 1446, in which, after reciting that he had founded a college at Eton for ”seventy scholars whose duty it is to learn the science of grammar and sixteen choristers whose duty likewise it shall be, when they have been sufficiently instructed in singing, to learn grarammar and an usher to teach the aforesaid boys, scholars and choristers,”[612] he proceeded to declare that ”it shall not be lawful for anyone, of whatever authority he may be, at any tirammar school in the town of Windsor or elsewhere within the space of ten English e”[613]

This warrant is specially significant in two respects One is, that it shows that the institution, founded by Henry VI, was not intended to differ in any essential respect frorammar schools which existed in various parts of the country On the contrary, steps were taken to prevent opposition There was a real danger that the gratuitous character of the instruction given at Etonschools, with the inevitable result that the social prestige of the school would be lowered The other significant fact arises frorammar school” This is the first use of the term in this sense which we have been able to trace, and it is probable that we have here the first occasion on which the word is employed as an alternative for ”free,” which denotes, as we have explained, that the school was open to all comers

It is not necessary that we should consider any further the history of the public schools This subject has already been fully treated by others, notably by Mr Leach in his _History of Winchester College_, and by Sir H C Maxwell Lyte in his _History of Eton College_

We may, however, note three respects in which Winchester first, and subsequently Eton differed from the scholastic institutions, which had previously been established

1 The scale on which Winchester College was carried out, clearly differentiates it from all earlier foundations The number of scholars for whom Wykeham provided, and the value of the endowments attached to the school, mark a considerable advance on what had been attempted previously

2 It was a new idea to associate a school in a district ree at Oxford Rashdall points out that Robert Egglesfield, the founder of Queen's College, had hoped to have had at Oxford a school of boys in connection with his college This proposal was not carried out That which Egglesfield simply proposed for Oxford, Wykeham actually accoe is the first exaiate churches had previously provided for the gratuitous instruction of scholars, but the real object of the establishiate church was that divine worshi+p should be rendered in an effective and dignified manner Endow of scholars, but this was to be effected in connection with an existing charitable institution At Winchester, for the first time, an institution was established for the co scholars, and for those purposes alone ”The really important new departure was taken, a real step in advance made, when Wykeham made his school a separate and distinct foundation The corporate name of 'Warden and scholars, clerks' stamped the school and the schoolboys as the aim and object of the foundation”[615]

One other question reat public schools to-day are attended by the sons of wealthy parents: were these schools founded originally for children of the social grade who now attend them? The foundation deeds state explicitly that they were established for ”pauperes et indigentes scolares”

Mr Leach writes vehereat deal of discussion has taken place, and much excellent eloquence run to waste on the qualification of 'poor and needy' It was allegedthat there had been a robbery of the poor in the matter of endowed schools; that the persons entitled, under the founder's statutes, to the benefits of Winchester College, were the poor in the sense of the poor law, the destitute poor, the gutter poor, or, at least, the poor labouring classes There is not, I believe, a title or a shred of justification for any such allegation in the case of any public or endowed grauments are advanced by Mr Leach in support of the views he enunciates:--

(1) He urges that the test of poverty from the school point of vieas the oath which every scholar had to take on reaching fifteen years of age: ”I have nothing whereby I know I can spend beyond five marks a year”[617]

Now, as there were at this date sixty-seven livings in the diocese of Winchester below this value, and as 1 6s 8d was the pay of a skilled artisan of that date, Mr Leach maintains that the possession of 3 6s

8d was a very considerable income for a boy

In reply it may be pointed out that the oath would provide for extreme cases only In this connection, it may be n of Henry VIII, to establish a free grammar school in connection with Exeter Cathedral Forty of the scholars of this school were to be ad any payment for their instruction and, in addition, they were to receive a shi+lling a week for the purpose of paying for ”their commons within the citie” Now, the test of poverty to qualify the candidates for this position was, that their parents were not to be in receipt of a higher income than 300 a year, possibly equal to 5,000 to-day[618] If we assu years of the twentieth century were forty times the value of such payments in the fourteenth century, even then the extreme limit of the income of a candidate for admission to Winchester was 133 6s 8d of modern money It is, therefore, obvious that the class of boy for which Winchester College was intended must have been of a lower social scale than that for which the proposed cathedral grammar school at Exeter was to be established

(2) By a clause which forms a postscript to Rubric XVI, it was provided that ”sons of noble and powerful personsto the nurae” This clause Mr Leach describes as containing the ”germ”

of the public school syste the early co noblees and chancery officials”

We contend that this does not apply to the case at all, inasmuch as ”parlour boarders,” as Mr Leach himself points out,[619] had frequently been received in monastic houses Even apart frore, and that his conclusions are by no means demonstrated, it may be maintained that the presence of wealthy boys at school, under special circumstances, does not invalidate the contention that the boys normally found there were the ”poor and needy” Thus Dr

Hastings Rashdall, in speaking of the students at the university, states that ”there was the scion of the princely or noble house who lived in the style to which he was accustomed at ho poorer but well born youths who dressed like him At the other end of the social ladder there was the poor scholar, reduced to beg for his living, or to becoe, or of a master or well-to-do student”[620] If the poor, in the sense of those who had to beg for a living or earn it, whilst they were at college, by manual labour, were not excluded from the university, why should it be assuentes scolares” for whoe was expressly founded?

We may also point out that it was not custoood family, or even the sons of wealthy and prosperoussent to school The instances which iven are few and inconclusive The usual practice adopted for the education of these young people, as we have shoas either by sending the a private tutor in the house Evidence ood social standing rarely proceeded to the universities at this time Thus Dr Furnivall points out that, up to the close of the sixteenth century, only three nahts are ienses_ and only nineteen htly birth in Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_[621]

We may next pass to consider the evidence for the contention which we advance, that, when Wykehae, he intended it for those ere too poor to pay for an education, irrespective of their social position, and that the term ”poor” did not exclude the children ofclasses of the community

(1) As we have reiterated so frequently, the actual terentes” Mr Leach maintains that this simply means the ”relatively poor,” the poor relations of the nobility, or the children of prosperous merchants His contention see of the phrase, and it will not be possible to quote from any charter or docuned to the term

(2) Even sixty years later, at the foundation of Eton College, when the character of Winchester School would be definitely fixed, when King Henry VI desired to establish a foundation which should exceed that of Wykeham, he associated with the school an almshouse for ”twenty-five poor and weaklyof an almshouse with the school marks the purpose of the school as a charitable endowment for the lower classes of the community

(3) The middle class of the fifteenth century was a wealthy class In the eleventh century, there were only two social grades in England, the nobility and the various classes of tenants The h its wealth Wealthy and prosperous merchants would seek to emulate the nobility of the land, and send their sons to the houses of nobles for their education or--at the least--to provide they of the period, ere practically the professional class, were celibates

(4) Mr Leach hinedly, applies examples to show that the sons of serfs attended schools He instances that in 1295, Walter, the son of Reginald the carpenter, ”was licensed to attend school” subject to the payeshall in Essex was fined for sending his son to school without license At Harrow in 1384, a villein was deprived of his horse for sending his son to school without license Mr Leach continues ”the fourteenth century manor rolls all over the country are dotted with fines for sending boys, 'ad scolas clericales,' to schools to become clerks”[623] Now, it would appear to us obvious, that if so a license, others would attempt to do so without pay so But the point which is established, without doubt, is that it was custorade to attend school

When these arguments are fairly considered, it is claiinally intended for boys whose parents were ”poor and needy”--and not simply for scions of the nobility or the sons of prosperous merchants The only condition of admission, practically, was that these boys would subsequently proceed to the universities, in order that their course of preparation for the priesthood ht be completed

CHAPTER VII