Читать книгу A History of Giggleswick School from its Foundation, 1499 to 1912 - Edward Allen Bell - Страница 10

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FROM the fifteenth century at least the local Grammar School was the normal place of education for all classes but the highest. In 1410 an action for trespass was brought by two masters of Gloucester Grammar School against a third master, who had set up an unlicensed school in the town and "whereas they used to take forty pence or two shillings a quarter, they now only took twelve pence," and therefore they claimed damages. In the course of the argument the Chief Justice declared that "if a man retains a Master in his house to teach his children, he damages the common Master of the town, but yet he will have no action."

Instances such as this tend to shew that it was the exception for boys to be taught either at home by a private tutor or under a man other than the Public Schoolmaster.

In England, Schools, from the first, that is from their introduction together with Christianity, had been exclusively ecclesiastical institutions and were under ecclesiastical authority and regulation. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council had said that there should be a Schoolmaster in every Cathedral, and that he should be licensed by the Bishop. In 1290 at Canterbury the Master had even the power of excommunicating his Scholars. At a later date many chantry priests by the founder's direction, a few voluntarily undertook the task of teaching. In 1547 they were compelled to do so by a law, which after a year was rendered nugatory by the confiscation of Chantries. In 1558 Elizabeth ordained that every Schoolmaster and Teacher should take the oath, not only of Supremacy but also of Allegiance. Even after the Reformation they had still to get the Bishop's license and this continued till the reign of Victoria, save for a brief period during the Commonwealth, when County Committees and Major-Generals took the responsibility.

The curriculum in Schools at the beginning of the sixteenth century consisted of what was called the Trivium, Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. The Quadrivium or Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy, was relegated to the Universities and only pursued by very few. In 1535 Henry VIII wished "laten, greken, and hebrewe to be by my people applied and larned." Latin was not in those days a mere method of training the youthful mind, it was much more a practically useful piece of knowledge. It was a standard of communication and a storehouse of phrases. It was taught in the most approved fashion, as a language to be spoken to fit them, as Brinsley says, "if they shall go beyond the seas, as gentlemen who go to travel. Factors for merchants and the like."

Almost every boy learned his Latin out of the same book. Lily's Grammar was ordered to supplant all others in 1540. The smallest local Grammar Schools had much the same text-books and probably as good scholars as Eton or Winchester or Westminster. The Master and Scholars must not talk any language other than Latin, Greek or Hebrew according to the Giggleswick Statutes, and at Eton and Westminster the same rule applied; at those Schools any boy discovered talking English was punished with the name of Custos, a title which involved various unpleasant duties.

Greek and Hebrew are both in the Giggleswick curriculum. Hallam says that in 1500 not more than three or four persons could be mentioned, who had any tincture of Greek. Colet, in his re-foundation Statutes of S. Paul's School ordained that future Headmasters "must be learned in good and clean Latin Literature" and also "in Greek, if such may be gotten." But towards the close of the century Greek had become well-established. Durham introduced it in 1593, the Giggleswick Statutes imply its use in 1592, and Camden, Headmaster of Westminster, in 1597 brought out a Greek Grammar, which became as universal as Lily's Latin Grammar.

Of Hebrew there are few records, and none at Giggleswick, it was probably allotted very little time, and certainly at the Universities, it was for long at a very low ebb.

With regard to English very little was done. Erasmus was responsible for a slightly wider outlook and he encouraged History in Latin books and in a less degree Geography as a method of illustration. Mulcaster who published his book "Positions" in 1561 deplored the fact that education still began with Latin, although religion was no longer "restrained to Latin." The Giggleswick Statutes set it forth that the Master shall instruct his scholars—for more knowledge of the Liberal Sciences and catechize them every week in the knowledge of Christian Religion.

If the Liberal Sciences were the appointed task, and, if in addition, he must speak Latin or Greek or Hebrew, the boy of 1592, long as his school hours undoubtedly were, would be well occupied. We have no evidence on the point, but we can conjecture from other sources the nature of the knowledge of Christian Religion that they were expected to have.

The Primer was the layman's service-book, and consisted largely of matter taken from the Horæ or Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

This litel child his litel book lerninge,

As he sat in the scole at his prymer.

In 1545 Henry VIII had issued a new edition in consequence of the Reformation and he now set it forth as the only edition to be used, and emphasized the importance of learning in the vernacular, the Pater Noster—Ave Maria—Creed—and Ten Commandments.

The Primer was a book of devotion, the Catechism was rather a summary of doctrines. Alexander Nowell, Dean of S. Paul's and possibly a brother of the Giggleswick John Nowell had published a Catechism in 1570, which supplanted all others even those "sett fourth by the Kinges majesties' authoritie for all scolemaisters to teache," and it was Nowell's Catechism that the School Statutes expected to be used.

The Bible was not definitely a school subject till 1604, and although it was in earlier use in some places of education, there is no mention of it at Giggleswick. There is however one more religious aspect of school life that was very general and is mentioned in these particular Statutes. The Master shall not begin to teache or dismiss the School without convenient Prayers and Thanksgivings. The Prayers would probably consist of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed.

Of Grace there is no mention, but in 1547 Edward VI had issued injunctions that "All Graces to be said at dinner and supper shall be always said in the English Tongue."

Every year the Master was allowed to appoint three weeks for the boys to be exercised in writing under a Scrivener. There were in Yorkshire peripatetic Scriveners, who used to wander from school to school and teach them for a few weeks in the year, after which the writing in the school would be neglected. At Durham School the writing had to be encouraged by a system of prizes, by which the best writer in the class would receive every Saturday all the pens and paper of his fellows in the form. St. Bees Grammar School in 1583 tried a similar system from another point of view, they paid the Usher 4d. yearly for every boy "that he shall teach to write, so long as he takes pains with them." But paper was a very great expense; for by the year 1600 there were only two paper factories in England and the price for small folio size was nearly 4d. a quire. Writing indeed was only beginning to be common in the schools, it had long been looked upon merely as a fine art and for ordinary purposes children had been taught by means of sand spread over a board. Henceforward steps are taken all over England to ensure its teaching; at first the expert, the Scrivener, goes round from school to school, but later the ability of the Ushers improves and no longer need they fear the competition of a rival, they begin to teach the boys themselves and writing becomes a part of the ordinary curriculum.

It will be recognized that there is a central motive of religion pervading the teaching and conduct of schools towards the close of the sixteenth century, and in the seventeenth, as there always had been. "We have filled our children's bones with sin" says Hezekiah Woodward, "and it is our engagement to do all we can to root out that which we have been a means to root in so fast." A more serious spirit was abroad. The young man was to abstain from singing or humming a tune in company "especially if he has an unmusical or rough voice." Schoolmasters were to abstain from "dicing and carding," scholars from misdemeanour and irreverent behaviour towards others.

Latin, Greek and Hebrew, became the "holy languages" because they were so closely allied with the Sacred Scriptures. Throughout education a deeper sense of the value of religious teaching, a deeper conviction that sin was detestable, a greater respect for outward sobriety fastened upon the minds of those who were responsible for education, and the children whom they trained grew up to be the fathers and mothers of the intense enthusiasts, who enforced religious freedom by the execution of their King.