unity which Rome established, and not simply a collection of fragments
artificially held together by military force, that the civilized world was
made, as it were, one nation, cannot be overstated.... It was a union, not
in externals merely, but in every department of thought and action; and it
was so thorough, and the Gaul became so completely a Roman, that when the
Roman government disappeared he had no idea of being anything else than a
Roman.... It was because of this that, despite the fall of Rome, Roman
institutions were perpetual." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the
Middle Ages_, 2d ed., p. 30.)
[9] A Germanic king, when he feared no Roman general or emperor, could
usually be made to stand in awe when a Christian priest or bishop appealed
to Heaven and the saints, and threatened him with eternal hell-fire if he
did not do his bidding.
[10] The Church, it must be remembered, maintained its separate system of
government and kept up the old forms of the Roman law. It had also its
courts and its exemptions for the clergy, and these it forced the
barbarians to respect. During half a dozen centuries it was the chief
force that made life tolerable for myriads of men and women, and almost
the only force upholding any semblance of humane ideals.
[11] Clotilda, wife of the heathen Clovis, was a Burgundian princess and a
devout Christian, who had long tried to persuade her husband to accept her
faith. In 496, during a battle with the Alemanni, near the present city of
Strassburg, Clovis vowed that if the God of Clotilda would give him
victory, he would do as she desired. The Alemanni were crushed, and he and
three thousand of his chiefs were at once baptized.
[12] Draper, John W., _Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. II, pp.
145-46.
[13] The extent of the Benedictine order alone may be seen from the
Benedictine statement that "Pope John XXII, who died in 1334, after an
exact inquiry, found that, since the first rise of the order, there had
been of it 24 popes, near 200 cardinals, 7000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops,
15,000 abbots of renown, above 4000 saints, and upwards of 37,000
monasteries. There had been likewise, of this order, 20 emperors, 10
empresses, 47 kings and above 50 queens, 20 sons of emperors and 48 sons
of kings, about 100 princesses and daughters of kings and emperors,
besides dukes, marquises, earls, countesses, etc., innumerable." From this
it may be inferred how fully the Church was the State during the long
period of the Middle Ages.
[14] Draper, John W., _Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. I, p.
437.
CHAPTER VI
[1] From the sixth to the twelfth centuries.
[2] The story which has come down to us of the German warrior who, on
being shown into an anteroom, saw some ducks swimming in the floor and
dashed his battle-axe at them to see if they were real, thus ruining the
beautiful mosaic, is typical of the time.
[3] During the period of Rome's greatness the publishing business became
an important one. Manuscripts were copied in numbers by trained writers,
and books were officially published. Both public and private libraries
became common, men of wealth often having large libraries. These were
found in the provincial towns as well as in the large Italian cities, and
in country villas as well as in town houses.
By the beginning of the eighth century books had become so scarce that
monasteries guarded their treasures with great care (R. 65), and books
were borrowed from long distances that copies might be made.
[4] Charlemagne (King of Frankland, 768-814), for example, found it
necessary to order that priests and monks must show themselves capable of
changing the wording of the masses for the living and the dead, as
circumstances required, from singular to plural, or from masculine to
feminine.
[5] Longfellow's poem _Monte Cassino_ is interesting reading here. Of
Benedict he says:
"He founded here his Convent and his Rule
Of prayer and work, and counted work as prayer;
The pen became a clarion, and his school
Flamed like a beacon in the midnight air."
[6] Sometimes as early as eleven to twelve years of age. The novitiate
course was two years, but as the vows could not be taken before eighteen,
the course of instruction often covered six to eight years.
[7] To teach a novice to copy accurately a manuscript book was quite a
different thing from the teaching of writing to-day, It was more nearly
comparable to present-day instruction in lettering in a college
engineering course, as it called for a degree of workmanship and accuracy
not required in ordinary writing.
[8] The Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible made by Saint Jerome, at
the close of the fourth century. The Old Testament he translated mostly
from the Hebrew and Chaldaic, and the New Testament he revised from the
older Latin versions. This is the only version of the Scriptures which the
Roman Catholic Church admits as authentic.
[9] Letters from one monastery to another, and from one country to
another, begging the loan of some ancient book, have been preserved in
numbers. Lupus, Abbot of Ferrières in France, for example, wrote to Rome
in 855, and addressing himself to the Pope in person, requested a complete
copy of Cicero's _De Oratore_, which he desired.
[10] The Missal is a book containing the service of the mass for the
entire year. The Psalter the book of Psalms.
[11] From _manu scriptum_, meaning written by hand.
[12] So expensive of time and effort was the production of books by this
method that many of the manuscripts now extant were written crosswise on
sheets from which the previous writing had been largely erased by chemical
or mechanical means. How many valuable ancient manuscripts were lost in
this manner no one knows. Fortunately the practice was not common until
after the thirteenth century, when the rise of the universities and the
spread of learning made new demands for skins for writing purposes.
[13] That the printing was not always carefully done is shown by the
constant need, throughout the Middle Ages, of correct copies for
comparison. The following injunction of the Abbot Alcuin to the monks at
Tours, given at the beginning of the ninth century, is illustrative of the
need for care in copying:
"Here let the scribes sit who copy out the words of the Divine Law,
and likewise the hallowed sayings of Holy Fathers. Let them beware of
interspersing their own frivolities in the words they copy, nor let a
trifler's hand make mistakes through haste. Let them earnestly seek
out for themselves correctly written books to transcribe, that the
flying pen may speed along the right path. Let them distinguish the
proper sense by colons and commas, and set the points, each one in its
due place, and let not him who reads the words to them either read
falsely or pause suddenly. It is a noble work to write out holy books,
nor shall the scribe fail of his due reward. Writing books is better
than planting vines, for he who plants a vine serves his belly, but he
who writes a book serves his soul."
[14] West, A. F., _Alcuin_, pp. 72-73.
[15] The largest monastic library on the Continent was Fulda, which
specialized in the copying of manuscripts. In 1561 it had 774 volumes. In
England the largest collections were at Canterbury, which in the
fourteenth century possessed 698 volumes, and at Peterborough, which had
344 volumes at about the same time. The library of Croyland, also in
England, burned in 1091, at that time contained approximately 700 volumes.
These represented the largest collections in Europe.
[16] The _Hortus Delicarum_ of the Abbess Herrard, of the convent of
Hohenburg, in Alsace, was a famous illustration of artistic workmanship.
This was an attempt to embody, in encyclopaedic form, the knowledge of her
time. The manuscript was embellished with hundreds of beautiful pictures,
and was long preserved as a wonderful exhibition of mediaeval skill. It
was lost to civilization, along with many other treasures, when the
Prussians bombarded Strassburg, in 1870.
[17] He there "enjoyed advantages which could not perhaps have been found
anywhere else in Europe at the time--perfect access to all the existing
sources of learning in the West. Nowhere else could he acquire at once the
Irish, the Roman, the Gallician, and the Canterbury learning; the
accumulated stores of books which Benedict (founder and abbot) had bought
at Rome and at Vienne; or the disciplinary instruction drawn from the
monasteries on the Continent, as well as from Irish missionaries." (Bishop
Stubbs, _Dictionary of Christian Biography_, article on Bede.)
[18] West, A. F., _Alcuin_, pp. 45-47.
[19] _Annals of Xanten_, 846 A.D.
[20] _Ibid._, 851 A.D.
[21] _Annals of Saint Vaast_, 884 A.D.
[22] It is related that ignorant court officials, fearing the king's
displeasure, sought to learn from their children.
[23] Through Alfred's efforts, the compilation of the _Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle_ was begun, that the people of England might be able to read the
history of their country in their own language.
CHAPTER VII
[1] Anderson tells of a monastic student's notebook on conduct which has
been preserved, and which "prescribes that the young man is to kneel when
answering the Abbot, not to take a seat unasked, not to loll against the
wall, nor fidget with things within reach. He is not to scratch himself,
nor cross his legs like a tailor. He is to wash his hands before meals,
keep his knife sharp and clean, not to seize upon vegetables, and not to
use his spoon in the common dish."
[2] This expression came into common use in the fifth century, when the
Christian writers summarized the ancient learning under these seven
headings or studies, following earlier Greek and Roman classifications.
(See p. 70).
[3] The _Doctrinale_, by Alexander de Villa Die. This was in rhyme, and
became immensely popular. It was the favorite text until the fifteenth
century.
[4] Donatus begins as follows:
"How many parts of speech are there?" "Eight."
"What are they?" "Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle,
conjunction, preposition, and interjection."
"What is a noun?" "A part of speech with case, signifying a
body or thing particularly or commonly."
"How many attributes have nouns?" "Six."
"What are they?" "Quality, comparison, gender, number, figure,
case."
Etc., etc.
[5] The following from Priscian, reproduced by Graves, illustrates the
method of instruction as applied to the first book of the Aeneid of
Vergil.
"What part of speech is _arma_?" "A noun."
"Of what sort?" "Common."
"Of what class?" "Abstract."
"Of what gender?" "Neuter."
"Why neuter?" "Because all nouns whose plurals
end in _a_ are neuter."
"Why is not the singular used?" "Because this noun expresses many
different things."
Etc., etc.
This form of textbook writing was common, not only during the Middle Ages,
but well into modern times. The famous _New England Primer_ was in part in
this form, and many early American textbooks in history and geography were
written after this plan.
[6] Vergil, due to his beautiful poetic form and to his love of nature and
life, was especially guarded against during the early Middle Ages as the
most seductive of the ancient Latin writers. It is not at all
inappropriate that, in Dante's _Inferno_, Vergil should have been the
person to guide Dante through hell and purgatory, but should not have been
allowed to accompany him into paradise.
[7] Textbooks on the art of letter-writing began to appear by the eleventh
century, explaining in detail how to prepare the five divisions of a
letter: (1) the salutation (_salutatio_), (2) the art of introducing the
subject properly and making a good impression (_captatio benevolentiae_),
(3) the body of the letter (_narratio_), (4) how to make the request
(_petitio_), and (5) a fitting conclusion (_conclusio_).
[8] Anderson reproduces a portion of a chapter by Capella on the number
four, which is illustrative of the mediaeval study of the properties of
number:
"What shall I call four? in which is a certain perfection of
solidarity; for it is composed of length and depth, and a full decade
is made up from those four numbers added together in order, that is,
from one, two, three, four. Similarly a hundred is made up of the four
decades, that is, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, which are a hundred; and
again four numbers from a hundred on amount to a thousand, that is,
100, 200, 300, 400. So ten thousand is made up of another series. What
is to be said of the fact that there are four seasons of the year,
four quarters of the heavens, and four principles of the elements?
There are also four ages of man, four vices, and four virtues."
[9] Anderson reproduces a paragraph from Maurus, showing how number was
applied to Holy Writ. It reads:
"A real thinker," says Maurus, "will not pass on indifferently when he
reads that Moses, Elijah, and our Lord fasted forty days. Without
strict observance and investigation the matter cannot be explained.
The number 40 contains the number 10 four times, by which all is
signified which concerns the temporal. For, according to the number 4,
the days and the seasons run their course. The day consists of
morning, midday, evening, and night, the year of spring, summer,
autumn, winter. Further, we have the number 10 to recognize God and
the creature. The three (trinity) indicated the Creator; the seven,
the creature which consists of body and spirit. In the latter is the
three: for we must love God with our whole heart and soul and mind. In
the body, on the other hand, the four elements of which it consists
reveal themselves clearly. So if we are moved through that which is
signified by the number 10 to live in time--for 10 is taken four
times--chaste, withholding ourselves from worldly lusts, that means to
fast forty days. So the Holy Scriptures contain suggestively in many
different numbers all sorts of secrets which must remain hidden to
those who do not understand the meaning of numbers."
[10] Gerbert (953-1003) was one of the most learned monks of his day,
having studied in the Saracen schools of Spain. He afterwards became Pope
Sylvester II (999-1003). Because of his scientific knowledge in an age of
superstition he was accused of transactions with the devil.
[11] For example, the _Stabat Mater_ and the _Dies Irae_, two thirteenth-
century hymns. The former has been called the most pathetic and the latter
the most sublime of all mediaeval poems.
[12] Cassiodorus was an educated later Roman, who had been chief minister
to Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king, and had done much to carry over Latin
learning and civilization into the new régime. He later founded the
monastery of Viviers, in southern Italy, and spent the latter part of his
life there in writing and contemplation. He urged the monks to study, and
those who had no head for learning he advised to read Cato and Columella
on agriculture, and then to devote themselves to it.
[13] "Wisdom hath builded her house; she hath hewn out her seven pillars."
(Proverbs, IX, 1.)
[14] Abelson, in his monograph on _The Seven Liberal Arts_, reduces each
of these textbooks to their equivalent in a modern 16mo printed page, with
the following results:
Cassi-
Capella Boethius odorus Isidore Alcuin Maurus
Subject (c. 425) (c. 520) (c. 575) (c. 630) (c. 800) (c. 844)
/Grammar...... 11 -- 25 50 54 55
|Rhetoric..... 14 -- 5-1/2 14 26 --
\Dialectic.... 11 -- 18 14 25 --
/Arithmetic... 11 40 2 2 -- --
|Geometry..... 15 30 2 1 -- --
|Astronomy.... 9 -- 15 3 23 60
\Music........ 11 67 2 12 -- --
--- --- --- --- --- ---
Totals in pages 82 137 69-1/2 96 128 115
[15] The mediaeval serf was the successor of the Roman slave, and was a
step upward in the process of the evolution of the free man. The serf was
tied to the soil and by obligations of personal service to the lord.
Gradually, due to economic causes, the personal service was changed from
general to definite service, and finally to a fixed rental sum. When a
fixed money payment took the place of personal service the free man had
been evolved. This took place rapidly with the rise of cities and industry
toward the latter part of the Middle Ages.
[16] The German private duel and the American fist fight are the modern
survivals of the time when personal insults, easily taken, and private
grievances were settled in the "noble way" by sword and battle-axe and
torch.
[17] In the earlier days of noblemen's education reading and writing were
regarded as effeminate, but in the later times the nobles became
increasingly literate. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many began
to pride themselves on their patronage of learning.
[18] Rhyming in the vernacular language came to be an important part of
the training, and many old love songs and songs expressing the joy of life
date from this period. Chaucer's knight is described as:
"Syngynge he was or floytynge [playing], al the day;
He was as fressh as is the monthe of May.
Short was his gowne, with sleves longe and wyde.
Wel cowde he sitte on hors and faire ryde;
He cowde songes make and wel endite,
Juste and eek daunce, and wel purtreye and write.
So hote he loved, that by nighterdale [night time]
He slept no more than doth the nightingale."
[19] From the life of the Frankish Abbot, John of Gorze, Abbot at Gorze in
the tenth century.
[20] Leach, A. F., _Educational Charters_, p. 143.
[21] _Ibid._, p. 147.
[22] Anselm (1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109,
formulated the early mediaeval view when he said:
"I do not seek to know in order that I may believe, but I believe in
order that I may know."
"The Christian ought to advance to knowledge through faith, not to
come to faith through knowledge."
"The proper order demands that we believe the deep things of Christian
faith before we presume to reason about them."
[23] Monroe, Paul, _Text-Book in the History of Education_, p. 258.
CHAPTER VIII
[1] "In the school of Nisibis the Church possessed an institution, which
for centuries secured her a system of higher education, and therewith an
important social and political position. To the older literature,
consisting of translations, there was added, from the middle of the fifth
century onward, a large number of philosophical, scientific, and medical
treatises belonging to Greek antiquity, and especially the works of
Aristotle. Through these Greek wisdom and learning, clothed in Syrian
attire, found a home on these borders of Christendom." (Müller, D. K.,
_Kirchengeschichte_, vol. I, p. 278.)
[2] "By the year 600 A.D. the triumph of the oriental element in
Christendom had well-nigh banished learning and education from the domain
of the Church, giving place to a gloomy, unquestioning faith which sank
ever deeper and deeper in the mire of superstition. What enlightenment
survived had found a home beyond the limits of the Roman Empire,--in
Ireland, in the extreme West; in Syria, in the far East." (Davidson,
Thomas, _History of Education_, p. 133.)
[3] This was determined as being 56-1/3 miles, which would make the
circumference of the earth 20,280 miles. The correct distance is 69 miles.
[4] The fanaticism of the eastern Arabs now reasserted itself, and higher
education In the Mohammedan countries of the East drew permanently to a
close. A harsh, rigid orthodoxy, fatal to educational progress, now
triumphed. The coming of the Turks only made matters worse, and with their
advent education throughout Arabia and Asia Minor became a thing of the
past. Some day it will be the task of western Europe to hand back schools
and learning to the Mohammedan East. This may be one of the by-products of
the great World War.
[5] The Alhambra, built between 1238 and 1354, at Granada, is an exquisite
example of their art. (See plate in vol. 1, p. 658, of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, 11th ed., for an illustration of their architecture and art.)
[6] It was an age of superstition and miracles, diabolic influences,
witchcraft and magic, private warfare, trials by ordeal, robber bands,
little dirty towns, no roads, unsanitary conditions, and miserable homes.
Even the nobility had few comforts and conveniences, and personal
cleanliness was not common. Disease was punishment for sin and to be cured
by prayer, while the insane were scourged to cast out the devils within
them.
[7] Frederic II was Emperor of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire, ruling
from 1227 to 1250. Though a German by birth, he had lived long in Sicily,
and spent most of his time in Italy after becoming Emperor. He greatly
admired the Saracens for their learning, and tried to transfer some of
their knowledge to Christian Europe. He lived, however, at a time when the
Papacy was cementing its temporal power and the Pope was becoming the
Emperor of Europe. This encroachment Frederick resisted and tried to
break, but without success. At his death the mediaeval German dream of
world empire perished; Germany was left a collection of feudal States; and
the temporal power of the Pope was henceforth for centuries to come
undisputed.
[8] Christianity had not as yet been introduced among the mixed Slavic and
Germanic tribes along the eastern Baltic. In Prussia and Lithuania, where
missionary efforts had been made from 900 on, success did not come until
more than three centuries later. (See art. "Missions," _Ency. Brit._, 11th
ed., vol. 18.)
[9] The more important questions arising concerned the Trinity, the
Eucharist, and Transubstantiation.
[10] This discussion was over what was known as nominalism vs. realism.
Anselm of Canterbury (1034-1109), basing his argument largely on some
parts of Plato, had declared that ideas constituted our real existence.
Roscellinus of Compiègne (1050-1105), basing his argument on parts of the
_Organon_ of Aristotle, had held that ideas or concepts are only names for
real, concrete things. Anselm, as a realist, contended that the human
senses are deceptive, and that revealed truth alone is reliable.
Roscellinus, as a nominalist, held that truth can be reached only through
investigation and the use of reason. The church accepted the realism of
Anselm as correct, and Roscellinus was compelled to recant. The stifling
effect of such an attitude toward honest doubt can be imagined.
[11] McCabe, Joseph, _Peter Abelard_, p. 7.
[12] By the beginning of the eleventh century this cathedral school had
become the most important in France, a position which it retained for
centuries. It was the great center for theological study, and drew to it a
succession of eminent teachers--William of Champeaux, Abelard, Peter the
Lombard--and, in time, thousands of students.
[13] The term _scholasticism_ comes from _scholasticus_, because it was
chiefly in the cathedral schools that scholasticism arose. It means,
literally, the method of thinking worked out by the teachers in the
cathedral schools.
[14] The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) once said that when he
considered the inertness of the Middle Ages he was led to think that God
had been content to make man a two-legged animal, leaving to Aristotle the
task of making him a thinking being. The worship of Aristotle is easily
explained by the great amount of information his works contained, his
logical method and skillful classification of knowledge, and the way his
ideas as to causes fitted into Christian reasoning.
[15] The Dominicans, or Black Friars, were a new teaching and preaching
monastic order, founded in 1216. It was a revival of monasticism, directed
toward more modern ends. The Dominicans established themselves in
connection with the new universities, and sought to control education and
to defend orthodoxy. Another new order of this same period was that of the
Franciscans, or Gray Friars, founded by Saint Francis in 1212. Their work
was directed still more to preaching, missions, and public service. They
were a less intellectual but a more democratic brotherhood. It was the
Franciscans who followed the armies of Spain to Mexico, and later built
and conducted the missions of the central and southern California coast.
[16] Special translations of Aristotle's _Rhetoric_ and _Politics_, from
the original Greek texts, obtained at Constantinople by the Crusaders,
were made for Thomas Aquinas at his special request, about 1260, by
William of Moerbeke, who knew enough Greek to perform the task. This gave
him better translations from which to lecture and write.
[17] In 529 the Eastern Emperor, Justinian (see p. 76), directed that an
orderly compilation be prepared of the many and confused laws and
decisions which had been made in the Roman Empire, with a view to
producing a standard body of Roman law in place of the unwieldy mass of
contradictory material then existing. The result was the _Corpus Juris
Civilis_, worked out by a staff of eminent lawyers between 529 and 533 (R.
93). This consisted of
I. The _Code_, in twelve books, containing the Statutes of the
Emperors;
II. The _Digest_, in fifty books, containing pertinent extracts
from the opinions of celebrated Roman lawyers;
III. The _Institutes_, in four books, being an elementary
textbook on the law for the use of students;
IV. The _Novellae_, or new Statutes, the final edition of which
was issued in 565, and included the laws from 533 on. This was
preserved and used in the East, but came too late to be of much
service to the Western Empire.
[18] The subdivisions were as follows: I. Contained 106 "distinctions,"
relating to ecclesiastical persons and affairs. II. Contained 36
"distinctions," relating to problems arising in the administration of
canon law. III. Contained 5 "distinctions," relating to the ritual and
sacraments of the Church.
[19] The additions were:
I. The _Decretals_ of Pope Gregory IX, issued in 1234, in five
books.
II. A Supplement to the above by Pope Boniface VIII (_Liber
Sextus_), issued in 1298.
III. The _Constitutions_ of Clementine, issued in 1317.
IV. Several additions of Papal Laws, not included in any of the
above.
[20] He held that the body contained four humors--blood, phlegm, yellow
bile, and black bile. Disease was caused by an undue accumulation of some
one of the four. Hence the office of the physician was to reduce this
accumulation by some means such as blood-letting, purging, blisters,
diaphoretics, etc. In the monastery of Saint Gall (see Diagram, R. 69) a
blood-letting room was a part of the establishment, and this practice was
continued until well into the nineteenth century.
[21] Galen was born at Pergamon, in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. He
studied medicine at Pergamon, Smyrna, and Alexandria, and for a time lived
in Rome. Returning to Pergamon he was appointed physician to the athletes
in the gymnasium there. He later went back to Rome and became physician to
the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is credited with five hundred works on
literature, philosophy, and medicine, one hundred and eighteen of which
have survived. In medicine he wrote on anatomy, physiology, diagnosis,
pathology, therapeutics, materia medica, surgery, hygiene, and dietetics.
He was the first to use the pulse as a means of detecting physical
condition.
[22] Saint Augustine, _The City of God_, book xxii, chap. 24.
[23] Often spoken of as Constantius Africanus. It is recorded that he
studied the arts in Babylon, visited Egypt and India, and returned to his
home in Carthage one of the most learned men of his age. Suspected of
dealings with the Devil he fled to Salernum (c. 1065), taught there for
many years, published many medical works of his own, and finally retired
to the monastery of Monte Cassino, dying there in 1087.
[24] In 1064 a company of seven thousand is said to have started for the
Holy Land.
[25] Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, 2d ed., p. 261.
[26] "From Clermont the enthusiasm spread over France like wildfire.
Stirring preachers, whereof the most notable was Peter the Hermit, set all
France, peasant and noble, to arming. It was the old gospel of Mohammed
recast in Christian guise:--pardon for sin and the spoils of the infidel
if victorious!--a swift road to heaven if slain in the battle! Pressed
with this hope and enthusiasm, armies to be reckoned by the hundreds of
thousands were launched upon the East." (Davis, W. S., _Mediaeval and
Modern Europe_, p. 95).
[27] Of the thousands of petty lords and knights who went to the hot East,
clad in the heavy armor of northern Europe, large numbers left their bones
along the way or in the Syrian sands, and the landholdings at home
reverted to the Crown. This was a crushing blow to the old feudal regime,
advanced the cause of civilization, and helped in the rise of the modern
nations. Especially was this true in France and England, whose knights
went in large numbers to the East. In Germany the knights and nobles, as a
class, refused to have anything to do with the Crusades, and hence they
were not killed off or impoverished, but remained to rule and multiply and
be troublesome. This is one reason for the much earlier rise and greater
strength of French than German nationality, and one reason why Germany has
been so much slower than France and England in developing a democratic
type of civilization.
[28] "As presented to the eye, a typical mediaeval city would be a
remarkable sight. Its extent would be small, both because of the limited
population, and the need of making the circuit of the walls to be defended
as short as possible; but within these walls the huge, many-storied houses
would be wedged closely together. The narrow streets would be dirty and
ill-paved--often beset by pigs in lieu of scavengers; but everywhere there
would be bustling human life with every citizen elbowing close to
everybody else. Out of the foul streets here and there would rise parish
churches of marvelous architecture, and in the center of the town extended
the great square--market-place--where the open-air markets would be held,
and close by it, dwarfing the lesser churches, the tall gray cathedral--
the pride of the community; close by, also, the City Hall, an elegant
secular edifice, where the council met, where the great public feasts
could take place, and above which rose the mighty belfry, whence clanged
the great alarm-bell to call the citizens together in mass meeting, or to
don armor and man the walls." (Davis, W. S., _Mediaeval and Modern
Europe_, p. 146.)
[29] In Italy, in particular, the cities became strong and powerful, and
eventually overthrew the rule of the bishops and defeated the German
Emperor, Frederick I, in a long battle to preserve their independence. In
Flanders such cities as Ypres, Bruges, and Ghent, came to dominate there.
In 1302 their burghers defeated the French army; and in the sixteenth
century they helped to break the autocratic power of Spain in a great
struggle for human and civic freedom. By the thirteenth century Hamburg,
Lübeck, Bremen, Augsburg, and Nuremburg were important commercial cities
in Germany.
[30] They came there because, due to their plundering and murdering
proclivities, Venice forbade her merchants to go to them.
[31] So poor were the mediaeval bridges that the old prayer-books
contained formulas for "commending one's soul to God ere starting to cross
a bridge."
[32] The peasants were of two classes: (1) serfs, who were not free and
who were attached to the soil, but unlike slaves had plots of land of
their own and could not be sold off the land; and (2) villeins, who were
personally free, but still were bound to their lord for much menial
service and for many payments in produce and money.
[33] The Church originally held many serfs and villeins, as did the
nobles. It began the process of setting them free, encouraging others to
do likewise. In time it became common, as it did in our Southern States
before the Civil War, for nobles in dying to set free a certain number of
their serfs and villeins. These went as free men to the rising cities.
[34] The mediaeval guild was an important institution, and the guild idea
was applied to many forms of mediaeval associations. Thus we read of
guilds of notaries in Florence, pleaders' and attorneys' guilds in London,
medical guilds and barber-surgeons' guilds in various cities, and of the
book-writers-and-sellers' guild in Paris. In a religious pageant given at
York, England, on Corpus Christi Day, 1415, fifty-one different local
guilds presented each a scene. (See Cheyney, E. P., _English Towns and
Gilds._, Pa. Sources, vol. II, no. I.)
[35] "The ready money of the merchant was as effective a weapon as the
sword of the noble, or the spiritual arms of the Church. Very speedily,
also, the men of the cities began to seize upon one of the weapons which
up to that time had been the exclusive possession of the Church, and one
of the main sources of its power,--knowledge and intellectual training.
With these two weapons in its hands, wealth and knowledge, the Third
Estate forced its way into influence, and compelled the other two
(Estates) to recognize it as a partner with themselves in the management
of public concerns." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_,
2d ed. p. 299.)
[36] In Hamburg, for example, the city council established four writing
schools in 1402, to which the church authorities objected. The council
refused to give them up, and for this was laid under the ban of the
Church, compelled to recede, admit that it had no right to establish such
schools, and pay the costs involved in the contest.
[37] For example, the three most widely read books of the thirteenth
century were _Reynard the Fox_, a profoundly humorous animal epic; _The
Golden Legend_, which so deeply impressed Longfellow; and the _Romance of
the Rose_, for three centuries the most read book in Europe.
[38] Despite all the criticisms one may offer against business, commerce
has always been a great civilizing force. While not anxious to pay heavy
taxes, the merchant has always been willing to pay what has been necessary
to support a public power capable of maintaining order and security for
property. Feudal turmoil, private warfare, and plundering are deadly foes
of commerce, and these have come to an end where commerce and industry
have gained the ascendant.
[39] As a rule a master craftsman might teach his trade to all his sons,
but could have only one other apprentice who received board, lodging,
clothing, and training, as one of the family. The guild still supervised
the apprentice, protecting him from bad usage or defective training by the
master.
[40] This required the production of a "masterpiece." This piece of work
had to be produced to prove high competency. For example, in the
shoemakers' guild of Paris, a pair of boots, three pairs of shoes, and a
pair of slippers, all done in the best possible manner, were required.
[41] Of thirty-three guilds investigated by Leach, all maintained song
schools, and twenty-eight maintained a grammar school as well. In London,
Merchant Taylors' School, Stationers' School, and the Mercers' School are
present-day survivals of these ancient guild foundations.
CHAPTER IX
[1] By the twelfth century the cathedral schools had passed the monastic
schools in importance, and had obtained a lead which they were ever after
to retain (R. 71).
[2] As contrasted with the monasteries, which were under a "Rule." The
opportunities offered by such open institutions in the Middle Ages can
hardly be overestimated.
[3] Frederick I, of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire of Germany and Italy.
[4] "No individual during the Middle Ages was secure in his rights, even
of life or property, certainly not in the enjoyment of ordinary freedom,
unless protected by specific guarantees secured from some organization.
Politically, one must owe allegiance to some feudal lord from whom
protection was received; economically, one must secure his rights through
merchant or craft guild; intellectual interests and educational activities
were secured and controlled by the Church." (Monroe, P., _Text Book in the
History of Education_, p. 317.)
[5] At first the older institutions organized themselves without charter,
securing this later, while the institutions founded after 1300 usually
began with a charter from pope or king, and sometimes from both (R. 100).
[6] The degree of master was originally the license to practice the
teaching trade, and analogous to a master shoemaker, goldsmith, or other
master craftsmen.
[7] "The universities, then, at their origins, were merely academic
associations, analogous, as societies of mutual guaranty, to the
corporations of working men, the commercial leagues, the trade-guilds
which were playing so great a part at the same epoch; analogous also, by
the privileges granted to them, to the municipal associations and
political communities that date from the same time." (Compayré, G.,
_Abelard and the Rise of the Universities_, p. 33.)
[8] "M. Bimbenet, in his _History of the University of Orleans_ (Paris,
1853) reproduces several articles from the statutes of the guilds, the
provisions of which are identical with those contained in the statutes of
the universities." (_Ibid._, p. 35.)
[9] Bologna and Paris were the great "master" universities of the
thirteenth century, while those founded on a model of either were more in
the nature of "journeymen" institutions.
[10] Between 1600 and 1700, although most of the cities capable of
supporting universities were provided with them, twenty-one more were
created, chiefly in Germany and Holland. The first American university
(Harvard) was established in 1636, and the second (Yale) in 1702. In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, without counting the United States or
any western-hemisphere country, forty more were created. Among the
important nineteenth-century creations were Berlin, 1810; Christiana,
1811; St. Petersburg, 1819; Brussels, 1834; London, 1836; and Athens,
1836.
[11] See Compayré, G., _Abelard_, pp. 87-90 for list of these "strikes."
[12] "It is impossible to fix the period at which the system of degrees
began to be organized. Things were done slowly. At the outset, and until
towards the end of the twelfth century, there existed nothing resembling a
real conferring of degrees in the rising universities. In order to teach
it was necessary to have a respondent, a master authorized by age and
knowledge....
"The 'license to teach,' nevertheless, became by slow degrees, as master
and pupils multiplied, a preliminary condition of teaching, a sort of
diploma more and more requisite, and of which the bishops (or their
representatives, the chancellors) were the dispensers. Up to the
fourteenth century there was hardly any other clearly-defined university
title." (Compayré, G., _Abelard_, pp. 142-43.)
[13] "It is manifest that the universities borrowed from the industrial
corporations their 'companionships,' their 'masterships,' and even their
banquets; a great repast being the ordinary sequel of the reception of the
baccalaureate or doctorate." (Compayré, G., _Abelard_, p. 141.)
[14] The term professor has become general in its significance, and is
used in all countries. In England the term master was retained for the
higher degree, while in Germany the term doctor was retained, and the
doctorate made their one degree. America followed the English plan in the
establishment of the early colleges, and the degree of A.B. and A.M. were
provided for. Later, when the German university influence became prominent
in the United States, the doctor's degree was superimposed on the English
plan.
[15] At Paris, for example, there were four nations--France, Picardy,
Normandy, and England. These were again divided into tribes, as for
example, there were five tribes of the French--Paris, Sens, Rheims, Tours,
and Bourges. Orleans had ten nations--France, Germany, Lorraine, Burgundy,
Champagne, Picardy, Normandy, Touraine, Guyenne, and Scotland. In those
days these represented separate nationalities, who little understood one
another, and carried their constant quarrels up to the very lecture
benches of the professors.
[16] A contemporary writer, Jacobus de Vitriaco, has left us an account of
student life at Paris, in which he says:
"The students at Paris wrangled and disputed not merely about the
various sects or about some discussions; but the differences between
the countries also caused dissensions, hatreds and virulent
animosities among them, and they impudently uttered all kinds of
affronts and insults against one another.
"They affirmed that the English were drunkards and had tails; the sons
of France proud, effeminate and carefully adorned like women. They
said that the Germans were furious and obscene at their feasts; the
Normans vain and boastful; the Poitevins traitors and always
adventurers. The Burgundians they considered vulgar and stupid. The
Bretons were reputed to be fickle and changeable, and were often
reproached for the death of Arthur. The Lombards were called
avaricious, vicious and cowardly; the Romans, seditious, turbulent and
slanderous; the Sicilians, tyrannical and cruel; the inhabitants of
Brabant, men of blood, incendiaries, brigands and ravishers; the
Flemish, fickle, prodigal, gluttonous, yielding as butter, and
slothful. After such insults from words they often came to blows."
(Pa. Trans. and Repts. from _Sources_, vol. II, no. 3, pp. 19-20.)
[17] In an American university the term _college_ or _school_ has largely
replaced the term _faculty_; in Europe the term _faculty_ is still used.
Thus we say College of Liberal Arts, or School of Law, instead of Faculty
of Arts, etc.
[18] For example, one of our modern state universities is organized into
the following faculties, schools, and colleges:
(1) college of liberal arts;
(2) school of medicine;
(3) school of law;
(4) school of fine arts;
(5) school of pure science;
(6) college of engineering;
(7) college of agriculture;
(8) school of history, economics, and social sciences;
(9) school of business administration;
(10) college of education;
(11) school of household arts;
(12) school of pharmacy;
(13) school of veterinary medicine;
(14) school of library science;
(15) school of forestry;
(16) school of sanitary engineering;
(17) the graduate school; and
(18) the university-extension division.
[19] "He was called 'The Philosopher'; and so fully were scholars
convinced that it had pleased God to permit Aristotle to say the last word
upon each and every branch of knowledge that they humbly accepted him,
along with the Bible, the church fathers, and the canon and Roman law, as
one of the unquestioned authorities which together formed a complete guide
for humanity in conduct and in every branch of science." (Robinson, J. H.,
_History of Western Europe_, p. 272.)
[20] This tendency increased with time, due both to the development of
secondary schools which could give part of the preparation, and to the
increasing number of students who came to the university for cultural or
professional ends and without intending to pass the tests for the
mastership and the license to teach. Finally the arts course was reduced
to three or four years (the usual college course), and the master's degree
to one, and for the latter even residence was waived during the middle of
the nineteenth century. The A.M. degree has recently been rehabilitated
and now usually signifies a year of hard study in English and American
universities, though a few eastern American institutions still play with
it or even grant it as an honorary degree. In Germany the arts course
disappeared, being given to the secondary schools entirely in the late
eighteenth century, and the universities now confer only the degree of
doctor.
[21] For a list of the books used in the faculty of medicine at
Montpellier, in 1340, see Rashdall, H., _Universities of Europe in the
Middle Ages_, vol. II, pt. I, p. 123; pt. II, p. 780.
[22] After the latter part of the thirteenth century the book-writing and
selling trade was organized as a guild industry, and the copying of texts
for sale became common. Then arose the practice of erasing as much of the
writing from old books as could be done, and writing the new book
crosswise of the page. In this way the expense for parchment was reduced,
and in the process many valueless and a few valuable books were destroyed.
Still, the cost for books during the days of parchment must have been
high. Walsh estimates that "an ordinary folio volume probably cost from
400 to 500 francs in our [1914] values, that is, between $80 and $100."
[23] In Germany the old mediaeval expression has been retained, and the
announcements of instruction there still state that the professor will
"read" on such and such subjects, instead of "offer courses," as we say in
the United States.
[24] Norton, in his _Readings in the History of Education; Mediaeval
Universities_, pp. 59-75, gives an extract from a text (Gratian) and
"gloss" by various writers, on the question--"Shall Priests be Acquainted
with Profane Literature, or No?" which see for a good example of mediaeval
university instruction and the manner in which a small amount of knowledge
was spun out by means of a gloss.
[25] Not many early library catalogues have been preserved, but those
which have all show small libraries before the days of printing. At
Oxford, where the university was broken up into colleges, each of which
had its own library, the following college libraries are known to have
existed: Peterhouse College (1418), 304 volumes; Kings College (1453), 174
volumes; Queens College (1472), 199 volumes; University Library (1473),
330 volumes. The last two were just before the introduction of printing.
The Peterhouse library (1418) was classified as follows:
Subject Chained Loanable
Theology............ 61 63
Natural Philosophy.. 26 |
Moral Philosophy.... 5 | 19
Metaphysics......... 3 |
Logic............... 5 15
Grammar............. 6 |
Poetry.............. 4 | 13
Medicine............ 15 3
Civil Law........... 9 20
Canon Law........... 18 19
Totals.............. 152 152
(Clarke. J. W., _The Care of Books_, pp. 145, 147.)
[26] Survivals of these old privileges still exist in the German
universities which exercise police jurisdiction over their students and
have a university jail, and in the American college student's feeling of
having the right to create a disturbance in the town and break minor
police regulations without being arrested and fined.
[27] See Compayré, G., _Abelard_, p. 201, for illustrations.
PART III
CHAPTER X
[1] One of the best known of the Troubadours was Arnaul de Marveil. The
following specimen of his art reveals both the new love of nature and the
reaction which had clearly set in against the "other-worldliness" of the
preceding centuries:
"Oh! how sweet the breeze of April,
Breathing soft as May draws near,
While, through nights of tranquil beauty,
Songs of gladness meet the ear:
Every bird his well-known language
Uttering in the morning's pride.
Reveling in joy and gladness
By his happy partner's side.
"When around me all is smiling,
When to life the young birds spring,
Thoughts of love I cannot hinder
Come, my heart inspiriting-
Nature, habit, both incline me
In such joy to bear my part:
With such sounds of bliss around me
Could I wear a sadden'd heart?"
[2] "In the Middle Ages man as an individual had been held of very little
account. He was only part of a great machine. He acted only through some
corporation--the commune, guild, the order. He had but little self-
confidence, and very little consciousness of his ability single-handed to
do great things or overcome great difficulties. Life was so hard and
narrow that he had no sense of the joy of living, and no feeling for the
beauty of the world around him, and, as if this world were not dark
enough, the terrors of another world beyond were very near and real."
(Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, 2d ed., p. 363.)
[3] Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, 2d. ed., p. 364.
[4] Petrarch refused to have the works of the Scholastics in his library.
Though a university man, he was out of sympathy with the university
methods of his time.
[5] "Florence was essentially the city of intelligence in early modern
times. Other nations have surpassed the Italians in their genius ... but
nowhere else except at Athens has the whole population of a city been so
permeated with ideas, so highly intellectual by nature, so keen in
perception, so witty and so subtle, as at Florence." (Symonds, J. A., _The
Renaissance in Italy_.)
[6] Sandys, J. E., in his _Harvard Lectures on the Revival of Learning_,
pp. 35-41, gives a list of the more important later finds, which see.
[7] Of the Florentine scholars one of the most famous was Niccolò Niccoli
(1363-1436), of whom Sandys says: "Famous for his beautiful penmanship, he
was much more than a copyist. He collected manuscripts, compared and
collated their various readings, struck out the more obvious corruptions,
restored the true text, broke it up into convenient paragraphs, added
suitable summaries at the head of each, and did much toward laying the
foundation of textual criticism." (Sandys, J. E., _Harvard Lectures on the
Revival of Learning_, p. 39.)
[8] For example, Laurentius Valla (1407-57) of Pavia, exceeded Niccoli in
ability in textual criticism. He extended this method to the New Testament
and, at the request of King Alphonso, of Naples, subjected the so-called
"Donation of Constantine," a document upon which the Papacy based in part
its claims to temporal power, to the tests of textual criticism and showed
its historical impossibility. This, indeed, was a new and daring spirit in
the mediaeval world, but it represented the spirit and method of the
modern scholar.
[9] For example, Ciriaco, of Ancona (1391-1450), has been called "the
Schliemann of his time." He spent his life in travel and in copying and
editing inscriptions. After exploring Italy, he visited the Greek isles,
Constantinople, Ephesos, Crete, and Damascus. One of his contemporaries,
Flavio Blondo, of Forli (1388-1463), published a four-volume work on the
antiquities and history of Rome and Italy. These two men helped to found
the new science of classical archaeology.
[10] Classical scholars assert that Greek became extinct in the Italy of
the Roman Church in 690 A.D. Greek was taught at Canterbury in the days of
the learned Theodore, of Tarsus (R. 59 a), who died in 690. Irish monks,
who carried Greek from Gaul to Ireland in the fifth century, brought it
back in the seventh century to Saint Gall, founded by them in 614. "John
the Scot," an Irish monk who was master of the Palace School under Charles
the Bald (c. 845-55), is said to have been able to read Greek. Roger
Bacon, the Oxford monk (1214-94), also knew a little Greek. William of
Moerbeke, in 1260, was able to translate the _Rhetoric_ and _Politics_ of
Aristotle for Thomas Aquinas. Greek monks were still found in the extreme
south of Italy at the time of the Renaissance, and Greek has remained a
living language in a few villages there up to the present time.
[11] Gian Antonio Campano; trans. by J. A. Symonds, _The Renaissance in
Italy_, vol. II, p. 249.
[12] For long it was thought that the revival of the study of Greek in the
West dated from the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, but this idea has
been exploded by classical scholars. The events we have enumerated in this
chapter show this, and at least five of the important Greek scholars who
taught in Italy came before that date. As the Turks closed in on this
wonderful eastern city, for so long the home of Greek learning and
culture, many other Greek scholars fled westward. The principal Greek
authors had, however, been translated into Latin before then.
[13] Some of the Italian universities participated but little in the new
movement. Bologna and Pavia, in particular, held to their primacy in law
and were but little affected by the revival.
[14] Bessarion (c. 1403-72), at one time Archbishop of Nicaea and
afterwards a cardinal at Rome, is said to have been surrounded by a crowd
of Greek and Latin scholars whenever he went out, and who escorted him
every morning from his palace to the Vatican. He was a great patron of
learned Greeks who fled to Italy. On his death he gave his entire library
of Greek manuscripts to Venice, and this collection formed the foundation
of the celebrated library of Saint Mark's.
[15] Symonds, J. A., _The Renaissance in Italy_, vol. II, p. 139.
[16] In 1436, Niccolò de Niccoli, a copyist of Florence, died, leaving his
collection of eight hundred manuscripts to the Medicean Library for the
use of the public, meaning thereby any scholar. This is said to have been
the first public-library collection in western Europe.
[17] Nicholas as a monk had had his enthusiasm for the new movement
awakened, and had gone deeply into debt for manuscripts. He was helped by
Cosimo de' Medici. When he became Pope (1447-55) he collected scholars
about him, built up the university at Rome, laid the foundations of the
great Vatican Library, and made Rome a great literary center. After the
death of Lorenzo the Magnificent at Florence, in 1492, the glory that had
been Florence passed to Rome, and it in turn became the cultural center of
Christendom.
[18] Much earlier, another Oxford man had returned from study under
Guarino at Ferrara--William Gray (1449)--but he seems to have made no
impression. A few other scholars went before Linacre and Grocyn and Colet,
but these men were the first to attract attention on their return.
[19] Agricola's real name was Roelof Huysman, meaning "Roelof the
husbandman." In keeping with a common practice of the time he Latinized
his name, taking the equivalent Roman word.
[20] This was bound in two volumes, and in 1911 a copy of it was sold at a
sale of old books, in New York City, for $50,000.
[21] A second edition of this Psalter was printed two years later, and
contains at the end, in Latin, a statement which Robinson translates as
follows: "The present volume of the Psalms, which is adorned with handsome
capitals and is clearly divided by means of rubrics, was produced not by
writing with a pen, but by an ingenious invention of printed characters:
and was completed to the glory of God and the honor of Saint James by John
Fust, a citizen of Mayence, and Peter Schoifher of Gernsheim, in the year
of our Lord 1459, on the 29th of August."
[22] The usual early edition was three hundred copies.
[23] At Florence about three hundred editions are said to have been
printed before 1500; at Bologna, 298; at Milan, 625; and at Rome, 925.
[24] The following numbers of different editions are said to have been
printed at the northern cities before 1500: Paris, 751; Cologne, 530;
Strassburg, 526; Nuremberg, 382; Leipzig, 351; Basel, 320; Augsburg, 256;
Louvain, 116; Mayence, 134; Deventer, 169; London, 130; Oxford, 7; Saint
Albans, 4.
[25] By 1500 it is said that a book could be purchased for the equivalent
of fifty cents which a half century before would have cost fifty dollars.
CHAPTER XI
[1] Much as universities have contributed to intellectual progress,
hostility to new types of thinking and to new subjects of study has been,
through all time, a characteristic of many of their members, and often it
has required much pressure from progressive forces on the outside to
overcome their opposition to new lines of scholarship and public service.
[2] For a list of these treatises, see Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_,
vol. v, p. 154.
[3] The distinguished author, Montaigne, was mayor in 1580.
[4] This order had begun as an institution for the instruction of the
poor, emphasizing the use of the Bible and the vernacular, but when the
new learning came in from Italy, classical learning was added and the
instruction of the brotherhood became largely humanistic.
[5] The influence of the old Greek classical terms in this connection is
interesting, and is another evidence of the permanence of Greek ideas.
Sturm here adopted the Italian nomenclature, Vittorino da Feltre having
called his school a _Gymnasium Palatinum_, or Palace School. Guarino wrote
of _gymnasia Italorum_. Both derived the term from the _Gymnasia_ of
ancient Greece, just as the academies of the Italian cities took their
name from the _Academy_ of Plato at Athens (p. 44). Another famous Greek
school was the _Lyceum_, founded by Aristotle (p. 44). All these names
came in during the Revival of Learning in Italy, and were applied to the
new classical schools at a time when every term, and even the names of
men, were given classical form. As a result the Italian secondary schools
of to-day are known as _ginnasio_, and the German classical secondary
schools as _gymnasia_. The French took their term from the _Lyceum_, hence
the French _lycées_. The English named their classical schools after the
chief subject of study, hence the English _grammar schools_. In 1638
Milton visited Italy, and was much entertained in Florence by members of
the academy and university there. In 1644 he published his _Tractate on
Education_, in which he outlined his plan for a series of classical
_academies_ for England. Milton was a church reformer, as were the
Puritans, and the Puritans, in settling America, brought over first the
term _grammar school_, and later the term _academy_ to England.
[6] Melanchthon, in his famous Saxony plan of 1528, had provided for but
three classes (R. 161). The class-for-each-year idea was new in German
lands.
[7] This became a fixed practice, Latin being the one language of the
school. A century later, when it was attempted by the Jansenists, in
France, to teach Greek directly through the vernacular, the practice was
loudly condemned by the Jesuits as impious, because it broke the
connection between France and Rome.
[8] His phrase book, _De Copia Verborum et Rerum_, went through sixty
editions in his lifetime, and was popular for a century after his death.
His book of proverbs, the _Adagia_, was in both Latin and Greek, and was
widely used. His Book of Sayings from the Ancients (_Apophthegmata_) was a
collection of little stories, much like some of our best modern books for
elementary-school use. His _Colloquies_, or Latin dialogues, were widely
used for two centuries in Protestant countries. These four were written
between 1511 and 1519, and largely for use in Saint Paul's School. His
Latin edition of Theodorus Gaza's Greek Grammar (1516) gave English
schools for the first time a standard text.
[9] They were _On the First Liberal Education of Children_ (1529), and _On
the Order of Study_ (1511).
[10] His _Praise of Folly_ (1509), and his _Ciceronian_ (1528).
[11] The introduction of the new learning into the English universities
was easier than elsewhere, because the English universities had broken up
into groups of residence halls, known as _colleges_. If the old colleges
could not be reformed new ones could be created, and this took place.
Trinity College, at Cambridge, founded in 1540, was from the first a
center of humanistic studies. That same year the King founded royal
professorships of Civil Law, Hebrew, and Greek at Cambridge.
[12] Elizabeth had had for her tutor Roger Ascham, author of _The
Scholemaster_, and a teacher of Greek at Cambridge (R. 139).
[13] For generations this famous grammar was to England what Donatus was
to mediaeval Europe. It was also used in the grammar schools of New
England. Lily visited Jerusalem and studied under the best Latin teachers
in Rome, so that he ranks with Linacre, Grocyn, and Colet as an introducer
of classical culture into England.
[14] Winchester was the first of the so-called "great public schools" of
England, of which Eton, Saint Paul's, Westminster, Harrow, Charterhouse,
Rugby, Shrewsbury, and Merchant Taylors' are the other eight. The
foundation statutes of Winchester made elaborate provision for "a Warden,
a Head Master, ten Fellows, three Chaplains, an Usher, seventy scholars,
three Chapel Clerks, sixteen Choristers, and a large staff of servants,"
as did Henry VIII later on for Canterbury (R. l72 a). The Warden and
Fellows were the trustees. In addition to the seventy scholars
(Foundationers) other non-foundationers (Commoners) were to be admitted to
instruction. The admission requirements were to be "reading, plain song,
and Old Donatus," and the school was to teach Grammar, the first of the
Liberal Arts. Except for the change in the nature of the instruction when
the new learning came in, this and the other "public schools" remained
almost unchanged until the second half of the nineteenth century.
[15] Statutes for this school had provided the following entrance
regulations: "But first see that they can the Catechisme in English or
Latyn, that every one of the said two hundred & fifty schollers can read
perfectly & write competently, or els lett them not be admitted in no
wise."
[16] His _The Positions_ (1581), and _The Elementarie_ (1582). See Chapter
XVIII.
[17] Solomon Lowe, in his Grammar, published in 1726, gives a bibliography
of 128 _Phrase Books_ which had appeared by that time. The following
selection from the _Colloquies_ of Corderius (R. 136) illustrates their
nature:
Col. 7. Clericus Col. 7. Clericus,
The Master. Magister.
C. Master, may not I and my uncle's Licetne, Magister, ut ego &
son go home? patruélis eámus domom?
M. To what end? Quid eó?
C. To my sister's daughter's wedding. Ad nuptias consobrinae.
M. When is she to be married? Quando est nuptura?
C. To-morrow. Crástino die.
M. Why will you go so quickly? Cur tam citò vultis ire?
C. To CHANGE OUR CLOATHS. _Ut mutémus vestimenta_.
[18] Sturm, Trotzendorf, and Neander insisted on the use of Latin in all
conversation in the school, and the Jesuits later on subjected boys to a
whipping if reported as having used the vernacular.
[19] Leach, A. F., _English Schools at the Reformation_, p. 105.
CHAPTER XII
[1] Up to this time the only Latin Bible had been the _Vulgate_ (p. 131),
translated by Jerome in the fourth century. Erasmus went back to and
edited the original Greek manuscripts, and then prepared a new parallel
Latin translation, the two being printed side by side. He also added many
explanations of his own which mercilessly exposed the mistakes of the
theologians and the Church, and pointed out the errors in translation
which were embodied in the _Vulgate_. This work passed through numerous
editions and sold in thousands of copies all over Europe.
So dangerous was this comparative method that "Greek was judged a
heretical tongue. No one should lecture on the New Testament, it was
declared, without a previous theological examination. It was held to be
heresy to say that the Greek or Hebrew text read thus, or that a knowledge
of the original language is necessary to interpret the Scriptures
correctly."
[2] This was accomplished between 1382 and 1384. Wycliffe translated only
a part of the Old Testament, and the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint
Mark of the New. The remainder was done under his direction by others. The
translation was from the Latin _Vulgate_, and was crude and imperfect. The
large number of copies of parts of this translation which have survived,
in manuscript form, to the present time show that it must have awakened
much interest, and been widely copied and recopied during the century
before the invention of printing.
[3] The heretic, it should be remembered, was the anarchist of the Middle
Ages. The Church regarded heresy as a crime, worthy of the most severe
punishments. The Church and the civil governments proceeded against the
heretic as against an enemy of society and order. Heretics could not give
evidence in a civil court, were prohibited from marrying or from giving a
son or daughter in marriage, and even to speak with a heretic was an
offense. Even torture and death were regarded as justified to stamp out
heresy.
[4] "What would have been the result had the Council of Constance
succeeded where it failed? It seems certain that one result would have
been the formation of a government for the Church like that which was
taking shape at the same time in England--a limited monarchy with a
legislature gradually gaining more and more the real control of affairs.
It seems almost equally certain that with this the churches of each
nationality would have gained a large degree of local independence, and
the general government of the Church have assumed by degrees the character
of a great federal and constitutional State. If this had been the case, it
is hard to see why all the results which were accomplished by the
reformation of Luther might not have been attained as completely without
the violent disruption of the Church." (Adams, G. B., _Civilisation during
the Middle Ages_, p. 403.)
[5] In 1302 the first "Estates-General" of France supported the King, and
denied the right of the Pope to any supremacy over the State in France. In
England, about the same time, the right of the Pope to levy taxation on
the English was disputed by King and Parliament. In 1446 William III of
Saxony limited the powers of ecclesiastical courts, and forbade appeals
from Saxon decisions to any foreign court.
[6] The London _Academy_, 1893, p. 197, published evidence to show that
there was a widespread demand among the bishops of Spain for church
reformation, during the fifteenth century, and along the same lines that
Luther advocated later.
[7] "But all these attempts at reformation in the Church, large and small,
had failed, as had those of the early fifteenth century to reform its
government, leaving the Church as thoroughly mediaeval in doctrine and in
practical religion as it was in polity. It was the one power, therefore,
belonging to the Middle Ages which still stood unaffected by the new
forces and opposed to them. In other directions the changes had been many;
here nothing had been changed. And its resisting power was very great.
Endowed with large wealth, strong in numbers in every State, with no lack
of able and thoroughly trained minds, its interests, as it regarded them,
in maintaining the old were enormous, and its power of defending itself
seemed scarcely to be broken....
"The Church had remained unaffected by the new forces which had
transformed everything else. It was still thoroughly mediaeval. In
government, in doctrine, and in life it still placed the greatest emphasis
upon those additions which the peculiar conditions of the Middle Ages had
built upon the foundations of the primitive Christianity, and it was
determined to remain unchanged." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the
Middle Ages_, pp. 406, 412.)
[8] Every reform movement produces two kinds of reformers, each seeking
the same ultimate goal, but differing materially as to methods of work. In
the religious conflict these two types are well represented by Erasmus and
Luther. Erasmus was as deeply interested in religious reform as Luther and
devoted the energies of a lifetime to trying to secure reform, but he
believed that reformation should come from within, and that the way to
obtain it was to remain within the old organization and work to reform it.
Luther represented the other type, the type which feels that things are
too bad for mere reform to be effective, and that what is wanted is
rebellion against the old. The two types seldom agree as to means, and
usually part company. One is content to be known as a conservative or a
conformer; the other delights in being classed as a progressive or even as
a radical.
[9] "The early Protestant theory was that an individual's Christian
religious life, convictions, and salvation were to be worked out through a
direct study of the Scriptures, acceptance of the obvious teachings of
Christ as there presented, and direct appeal to God through prayer for
help in leading a Christian life. The Catholic position, on the other
hand, came to be that the individual's religious life was to be achieved
through the intervention of the Church, which claimed on historical
grounds to have been founded by Christ, and to be his official
representative and mediator in the world. It was through the teachings of
this Church that the individual was to receive his ideas of the Christian
religion, to be stimulated to believe these, to be kept in the path of
righteousness, and to obtain salvation." (Parker, S. C., _History of
Modern Elementary Education_, p. 35.)
[10] Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, p. 413.
[11] A good illustration of the way parts of Germany and German
Switzerland were divided by religious differences is to be found in the
Canton of Appenzell, in northeastern Switzerland. As each small
governmental division had to follow the religion of the ruling prince in
Germany, so in Switzerland the cantons divided on religious lines. To
compromise matters in Appenzell the canton was divided into two half
cantons, following the religious wars of 1597--Inner Rhoden, of sixty-
three square miles, exclusively Roman Catholic, and Outer Rhoden, of
ninety-six square miles, entirely under the Swiss Reformed Church.
[12] Calvinism is also a product of the northern humanism, Calvin's
difficulties with the Church arising out of his study of the Greek texts.
Calvin had received an excellent theological and legal education, and used
the knowledge and training derived from both to help him formulate a
comprehensive system of belief.
[13] Like the famous _Sentences_ of Peter Lombard (p. 171), it formed a
splendid textbook of the new faith. Calvin based his work on the
infallibility of the Bible, as against that of the Church and Pope, and
presented, in a remarkably clear and logical manner, the principles of
Calvinistic doctrine. Before 1630, as many as seventy-four full editions
and fourteen partial editions of the _Institutes_ had been printed, and in
nine different languages.
[14] This went through seventy-seven editions (fourteen in English) before
1630, and in nearly all the languages of Europe, and was one of four
Catechisms, one of which was required of all Oxford undergraduates in
1578. It was adopted by the Scotch, Huguenot, French-Swiss, and Walloon
(Dutch) churches, and was widely used in Holland, England, and America.
(See "Calvin and Calvinism," in Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol.
I.)
[15] By 1560 the Calvinists had two thousand houses for religious worship
in France, and demanded religious freedom. In 1562 the persecutions began
in earnest, and for the next thirty-six years religious warfare ruled in
France. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes established religious freedom, though
this was revoked in 1685.
[16] Even the celebrated Peace of Augsburg (1555) which left to each
German prince and each town and knight the liberty to choose between the
beliefs of the Roman Church and the Lutheran, provided only for religious
freedom for the rulers, and only one alternative. Calvinists, for example,
hated equally by Catholic and Lutheran, were not included. So deeply was
the idea of Church and State as inseparable embedded in the minds of men
that no provision was made for the religious freedom of subjects. This was
a much later evolution, coming first in America.
[17] In the proposals for the League of Nations Covenant, made at the
conclusion of the World War, in 1919, religious freedom for all persons in
any State in the League was finally decided to be a necessary principle
for any world league.
[18] Paulsen, Fr., _German Education, Past and Present_, pp. 96-97.
[19] The terms _atheist_ and _atheism_ now arose, as the modern
substitutes for excommunication and imprisonment, and during the next two
centuries these were applied, by the churchmen of the time, to almost
every prominent philosopher and scientist and independent thinker.
[20] Very severe measures were enacted to prevent the spread of the
contagion of heresy. All Protestant literature was forbidden circulation
in Catholic lands. The printing-press, as a disseminator of heresy, was
placed under strict license. Certain books were ordered burned. Perhaps
the most extreme and ruthless measure was the prohibition, under penalty
of death, of the reading of the Bible. That this harsh act was carried out
the record of martyrs shows. As one example may be mentioned the sister of
the Flemish artist Matsys and her husband, he being decapitated and she
buried alive in the square fronting the cathedral at Louvain, in 1543, for
having been caught reading the sacred Book.
CHAPTER XIII
[1] Dr. Philip Schaff, the Church historian, says: "Schleiermacher reduced
the whole difference between Romanism and Protestantism to the formula,
'Romanism makes the relation of the individual to Christ depend on his
relation to the Church: Protestantism, _vice versa_, makes the relation of
the individual to the Church depend on his relation to Christ.'" (Quoted
by G. B. Adams, from a pamphlet, _Luther Symposiac_, Union Seminary,
1883.)
[2] The importance of writing before the days of printing can readily be
appreciated. Just as the monk was carefully trained to copy manuscript, so
the clerk for a city or a business house needed to be carefully trained to
read and write. Writing formed a distinct profession, there being the
"city writer" (city clerk, we say), Latin and vernacular secretaries,
traveling writers, writing teachers, etc. Writing masters sometimes taught
reading also, but usually not. In some French cities the guild of writing
masters was granted an official monopoly of the privilege of teaching
writing in the city.
[3] Reckoning schools were to meet direct commercial needs in the cities,
and were seldom found outside of commercial towns. The arithmetic taught
in the Latin schools as a part of the Seven Liberal Arts was largely
theoretical; the arithmetic in the reckoning schools was practical. The
work of the professional reckoner in time developed similarly to that of
the professional writer, and often the two were combined in one person.
When employed by a city he was known as the city clerk. In 1482 the first
reckoning book to be published in Germany appeared, filled with merchant's
rules and applied problems in denominate numbers and exchange. See an
interesting monograph by Jackson, L. L., _Sixteenth Century Arithmetic_
(Trs. College Pubs., No. 8, 1906).
[4] Luther tried to make a translation so simple that even the unlearned
might profit by listening to its reading. To insure that his translation
should be in a language that would be perfectly clear and natural to the
common people, he went about asking questions of laborers, children, and
mothers to secure good colloquial expressions. It sometimes took him weeks
to secure the right word, but so satisfactory was the result that it fixed
the standard for modern German, and still stands as the most conspicuous
landmark in the history of the German language.
[5] The French version of this great original work represents the first
use of French as a language for an argumentative treatise, and, as
Calvin's work was more widely discussed than any other Protestant
theological treatise, it did much to fix the character of this national
language.
[6] "Tyndale's translation is not only the first which goes back to the
original tongues, but it is so noble a translation in its mingled
tenderness and majesty, its Saxon simplicity, and its smooth, beautiful
diction that it has been but little improved on since. Every succeeding
version is little more than a revision of Tyndale's." (J. Paterson Smyth,
_How We Got Our Bible_.)
The following extract from Matthew is illustrative: "O oure father which
art in heven, halewed be thy name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy wyll be
fulfilled, as well in erth, as hit ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure
dayly breade. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them
whych treaspas vs. Lede vs nott in to temptacion, but delyvre vs from
yvell. Amen."
[7] The most famous of Luther's German hymns, and one expressive of the
Protestant spirit, is the one beginning:
"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, "A mighty fortress is our God,
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen." A bulwark never failing."
This hymn has often been called "The Marseillaise of the Reformation."
[8] The evolution, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the
German vernacular school-teacher out of the parish sexton is one of the
interesting bits of our educational history.
[9] Magdeburg is typical, where the Lutherans united all the parish
schools under the supervision of one pastor.
[10] Wittenberg, founded in 1502 as a new-learning university, and in
which Luther, Melanchthon, and Bugenhagen were professors, was the first
of the universities to become Protestant. Gradually the other universities
in Protestant Germany threw off their allegiance to the Pope, and took on
that of the ruling prince.
[11] The first Protestant university to be founded was Marburg, in Hesse,
in 1527. When this later went over to Calvinism, a new university was
founded at Giessen, in 1607, by a migration of the Lutheran professors.
Other Protestant universities founded were Königsberg (1544) Jena (1555),
Helmstadt (1576), and the free-city universities of Altdorf (1573),
Strassburg (1621), Rinteln (1621), Duisberg (1655) and Kiel (1665). The
support of these came, to a considerable extent, from old monastic or
ecclesiastical foundations which had been dissolved after the Reformation.
[12] This was in response to a petition to the King, nearly two years
before. The King finally granted the request, "though maintaining that he
was not compelled by God's Word to set forth the Scriptures in English,
yet 'of his own liberality and goodness was and is pleased that his said
loving subjects should have and read the same in convenient places and
times.'" (Procter and Frere, _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p.
30.)
[13] "The injunctions directed that 'a Bible of the largest volume in
English' be set up in some convenient place in every church, where it
might be read, only without noise, or disturbance of any public service,
and without any disputation, or exposition." (_Ibid._, p. 30.)
[14] The right to read the Bible was later revoked, during the closing
years of Henry VIII's reign (d. 1547), by an act of Parliament, in 1543,
which provided that "no woman (unless she be a noble or gentle woman), no
artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, under the degree of
yeomen ... husbandmen, or laborers" should read or use any part of the
Bible under pain of fines and imprisonment.
[15] These were, distributed by reigns, as follows:
Henry VIII (1509-1547) 63 schools
Edward VI (1547-1553) 50 "
Mary (1553-1558) 19 "
Elizabeth (1558-1603) 138 "
James I (1603-1625)
Charles I (1625-1649) 142 "
Protectorate (1649-1660)
Charles II (1660-1685)
James II (1685-1688) 146 "
CHAPTER XIV
[1] "These Calvinists had a common program of broad scope--not merely
doctrinal, but also political, economic, and social. Their common program
and their social ideals demanded education of all as instruments of
Providence for church and commonwealth. Their industrious habits and
productive economic life provided funds for education. Their
representative institutions in both church and commonwealth not only
necessitated general diffusion of knowledge, but furnished the
organization necessary for founding, supervising, and maintaining, in
wholesome touch with the common man, both elementary and higher
institutions of learning. Their disciplined and responsive conscience,
their consequent intensity of moral conviction and spirit of self-
sacrifice for the common weal, compelled them to realize, in concrete and
permanent form, their ideals of college and common school." (Foster, H.
D., In Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. i, p. 499.)
[2] In 1625 a list of the famous men of the city of Louvain, in Belgium,
was printed. More than one fourth of those listed had studied in the
colleges of Geneva.
[3] Foster, H. D., Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 491.
[4] In Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 498.
[5] "That public schools abounded throughout the Netherlands is evident.
Every study of the archives of town or province discloses their presence.
The minutes of every religious body bear overwhelming testimony not only
to the existence of schools, but also a zealous interest in their
maintenance." (Kilpatrick, W. H., _Dutch Schools of New Netherlands_, p.
37.)
[6] For long the Church had had the Inquisition, but, while it had
rendered loyal and iniquitous service, the results had been in no way
commensurate with the bitter hatred which its work awakened.
Excommunication, persecution, imprisonment, the stake, and the sword had
been tried extensively, but with only partial success. In education the
reformers had shown the Church a new method, which was positive and
effective and did not awaken opposition, and from the reformer's zeal for
Latin grammar schools to provide an intelligent ministry the Church took
its cue of establishing schools to train its future leaders. It was a
long-headed and far-sighted plan, and its success was proportionately
large.
[7] This is not true of their missions in foreign lands, where the mission
priests usually gave elementary instruction. Elementary schools were
maintained in the Jesuit missions of North and South America. Thus a
mission school was established at Quebec as early as 1635, and one at
Newtown, in Catholic Maryland, in 1640. After 1740 elementary parish
schools were opened by the Jesuits among the German Catholics in
Pennsylvania. From these beginnings Catholic parish schools have been
developed in the United States.
[8] The Order was reëstablished in 1814 and it has since been allowed to
reëstablish itself in most countries, though not in France or Germany.
There are 41 Jesuit colleges in America, in 21 states. (For list see
Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. III, p. 540.) In the revision of
its course of instruction, in 1832, modern studies were added, but the
Society has never played any such conspicuous part in education since its
reëstablishment as it did during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[9] It is an interesting speculation as to whether the fact that the
Jesuits made such headway in German lands, and so deeply impressed their
training on the children of the nobility there, has had any connection
with the attitude of German and Austrian political leaders in their
governmental and political policies since that time.
[10] By the middle of the eighteenth century the Jesuits had lost much of
their former vigor, and their colleges their former large influence. They
had become powerful and arrogant, mixed deeply in political intrigues,
quarreled with any one who crossed their path, and refused to change their
instruction to meet new intellectual needs. They were finally driven from
France, Spain, Portugal, and German lands, and were ultimately abolished
as an Order.
[11] The care with which the _Ratio Studiorum_ was worked out is typical
of the thoroughness of the Order. A preliminary outline of work was
followed for many years, the whole being experimental. Reports on it were
made, and finally a preliminary Ratio was issued, in 1586. This was again
revised and cast into final form, in 1599. In this form it remained until
1832, when some modern studies were added.
[12] Dabney, R. H., _The Causes of the French Revolution_, p. 203.
[13] For example, the "States-General" of France met four times during the
seventeenth century, with weighty problems of religion and state for
consideration, yet in three of the four meetings resolutions were passed
urging the clergy to establish schoolmasters in all the towns and
villages, and a general system of compulsory education for all.
[14] _Les vrais Constitutions des Religieuses de la Congrégation de Nostre
Dame_, chap. xi, sec. 6, 2d ed., Toul, 1694.
[15] See especially Felix Cadet, _Port-Royal Education_ (Scribners, New
York, 1898), for translations of many of the brief pedagogical writings of
members of the Order.
[16] Father Demia, at Lyons, had organized what was probably the first
training-school for masters, in 1672. La Salle's training-school dates
from 1684. Francke's German _Seminarium Praeceptorum_, at Halle, the first
in German lands, dates from 1696.
[17] The numerous pictures of schools and educational literature well into
the nineteenth century show the general prevalence of the individual
method of instruction. It was the method in American schools until well
toward the middle of the nineteenth century. To have graded the children
and introduced class instruction in 1684 was an important advance which
the world has been slow in learning.
[18] Everything was according to rule, even the ferule, which must be made
of two strips of leather, ten to twelve inches long, sewed together. All
offenses, and the number and location of the blows for each, were
specified. Later the corporal punishment was replaced by penances.
CHAPTER XV
[1] Representing not over one tenth of the population, the Protestants in
France had from the first been subjected to much persecution. In the
Massacre of Saint Bartholomew (1572) over one thousand had been massacred
in Paris and ten thousand more in the provinces. After some warfare, a
treaty was made, in 1598, under which the so-called "Edict of Nantes"
guaranteed religious toleration for the Protestants. In 1685 this was
revoked, and their ministers were given fifteen days to leave France. The
members were, however, forbidden to leave. Many, though, got away,
escaping to the Low Countries, England, and to America.
[2] The culmination of this dissatisfaction came in 1649, when Charles I
was beheaded and "The Commonwealth" was established under Cromwell. During
the troubled times which followed (1649-60) much damage was done to the
churches of England by way of eliminating vestiges of "popery."
[3] Some of these went back to England--many after the establishment of
the Protestant Commonwealth under Cromwell (1649). It has been estimated,
for three of the early colonies, that the population by decades was
approximately as follows:
1630 1640 1650 1660
New Netherlands.............. 500 1000 3000 6000
Massachusetts................ 1300 14000 18000 25000
Virginia...................... 3000 8000 17000 33000
[4] The name and the form came alike from old England, where an irregular
area known as a "town" or a "township," constituted the unit of
representation in the shiremoats and the membership of the church parish.
Almost every town and parish officer known in England was created by the
new towns in New England, with practically the same functions as in the
old home.
[5] "The settlers were in the first freshness of their Utopian enthusiasm,
and their church establishment was the very heart of their enterprise. It
became therefore a matter of primary importance to educate preachers. For
ages preparation for the ministry had consisted mainly in acquiring a
knowledge of Latin, the sacred tongue of western Christendom. Though the
Latin service was no longer used by Protestants, and the Vulgate Bible had
been dethroned by the original text, and though the main stream of English
theology was by this time flowing in the channel of the mother tongue, the
notion that all ministers should know Latin had still some centuries of
tough life in it." (Eggleston, E., _The Transit of Civilization_, p. 225.)
[6] For example, the town of Boston, in 1641, devoted the income from
Deere Island to the support of schools, and Plymouth, in 1670,
appropriated the income from the Cape Cod fishing industry to the support
of grammar schools (R. 194 c).
These are among the earliest of the permanent endowments for education in
America.
[7] See _The Development of School Support in Colonial Massachusetts_, by
George L. Jackson, for a careful study of the different early methods of
school support.
[8] The Puritan emigrants to New England represented a sturdy and well-
educated class of English country squires and yeomen. They came of thrifty
and well-to-do stock, the shiftless and incompetent not being represented.
All had had good educational advantages, and many were graduates of
Cambridge University. It has been asserted that probably never since has
the proportion of college men in the community been so large.
[9] Martin, Geo. H., _The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public-School
System_, pp. 14-16.
[10] The charging of a tuition fee to those who could afford to pay was a
common European practice of the time, nevertheless the public authorities
--at that time a mixture of civil and church officials--provided the
school, employed and licensed the teacher, determined the textbooks to be
used, and laid down the conditions under which the school should be
conducted. The schoolmaster assisted the church by participating in the
Sunday services. The elementary school of the Dutch, which was copied in
the New Netherland, was thus a combination of a public and parochial, and
a free and pay school.
[11] This was, of course, much more true of New York City and Island than
of the outlying Dutch villages. In these latter a public school was for
long maintained.
[12] Draper, A. S., _Origin and Development of the New York Common School
System_.
[13] Among the German Lutherans, who constituted nearly one fourth of the
total population of the colony, a school is claimed to have been
established alongside the church by each of the congregations "at the
earliest possible period after its formation." The close connection
between these Lutheran congregations and their schools may be seen from
the following contract, dated at Lancaster, in 1774:
"I, the undersigned, John Hoffman, parochial teacher of the church at
Lancaster, have promised in the presence of the congregation, to serve
as choirister, and, as long as we have no pastor, to read sermons on
Sunday. In summer I promise to hold cathechetical instruction with the
young, as becomes a faithful teacher, and also to lead them in the
singing and attend to the clock."
[14] The seventeenth-century Virginia legislation relating to education
is as follows:
1643. Orphans to be educated "according to the competence of their
estate."
1646. "If the estate be so meane and inconsiderate that it will not
reach to a free education, then that orphan [shall] be bound to
some manuall trade ... except some friends or relatives be willing
to keep them."
1660-61. "To avoid sloth and idleness ... as also for the relief of
parents whose poverty extends not to giving [their children]
breeding, the justices of the peace should ... bind out children
to tradesmen or husbandmen to be brought up in some good and
lawful calling."
[15] "Perhaps the most remarkable, because the most widespread and complex
illustration of the educational genius of Calvinism is to be found in the
American colonies, where the various European streams of Calvinism so
converged that the seventeenth-century colonists were predominantly
Calvinists--not merely the Puritans of New England, but the Dutch,
Walloons, Huguenots, Scotch, and Scotch-Irish, with a considerable Puritan
admixture in Anglican Virginia and Catholic Maryland." (Foster, H. D., in
Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 498.)
[16] "To illustrate how omnipresent this religious atmosphere was, I
cannot do better than to cite the occasion when Judge Sewell found that
the spout which conducted the rain water from his roof did not perform its
office. After patient searching, a ball belonging to the small childeren
was found lodged in the spout. Thereupon the father sent for the minister
and had a season of prayer with his boys that their mischief or
carelessness might be set in its proper aspect and that the event might be
sanctified to their spiritual good. Powers of darkness and of light were
struggling for the possession of every soul, and it was the duty of
parents, ministers, and teachers to lose no opportunity to pluck the
children as brands from the burning." (Johnson Clifton, _Old-Time Schools
and Schoolbooks_, p. 12.)
CHAPTER XVI
[1] Thales had guessed that water was the primal element from which all
had been derived; Anaximenes guessed air; Heraclitus fire; Pythagoras held
that number was the essence of all things; Empedocles thought that fire
and heat, accompanied by "indestructible forces," formed the basis;
Xenophanes had guessed air, fire, water, and earth, and had worked out a
complete scheme of creation. For an interesting discussion of these early
attempts to explain creation, see J. W. Draper, _History of the
Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. 1, chap. iv.
[2] Among the treatises by him accepted as genuine are _On Airs, Waters,
and Places_; _On Epidemics_; _On Regimen in Acute Diseases_; _On
Fractures_; and _On Injuries of the Head_.
[3] For example, Hippocrates had held that the human body contains four
"humors"--blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile--and that disease was
caused by the undue accumulation of some one of these humors in some
organ, which it was the business of the physician to get rid of by blood-
letting, blistering, purging, or other means.
[4] From a collection of doggerel rhymes put out by two pastors and
doctors of theology at Basle, in 1618, by the names of Grassner and Gross,
to interpret the orthodox theory of comets to peasants and school
children.
[5] "The earth is a sphere, situated in the center of the heavens; if it
were not, one side of the heavens would appear nearer to us than the
other, and the stars would be larger there. The earth is but a point in
comparison to the heavens, because the stars appear of the same magnitude
and at the same distance _inter se_, no matter where the observer goes on
the earth. It has no motion of translation.... If there were a motion, it
would be proportionate to the great mass of the earth and would leave
behind animals and objects thrown into the air. This also disproves the
suggestion made by some, that the earth, while immovable in space, turns
round on its own axis." (Ptolemy, Digest of argument of Book 1 of the
_Almagest_.)
[6] In the dedicatory letter Copernicus states that he had had the
completed manuscript in his study for thirty-six years, and published it
now only on the urging of friends.
[7] To secure the greatest possible accuracy he constructed a wooden
outdoor quadrant some ten feet in radius, with a brass scale, thus
permitting readings to a fraction of an inch.
[8] "The current view was that comets were formed by the ascending of
human sins from the earth, that they were changed into a kind of gas, and
ignited by the anger of God. This poisoned stuff then fell down on
people's heads, causing all kinds of mischief, such as pestilence, sudden
death, storms, etc." (Dryer, J. L. E., _Tycho Brahe_.)
[9] "For over fifty years he was the knight militant of science, and
almost alone did successful battle with the hosts of Churchmen and
Aristotelians who attacked him on all sides--one man against a world of
bigotry and ignorance. If then... when face to face with the terrors of
the Inquisition he, like Peter, denied his Master, no honest man, knowing
all the circumstances, will be in a hurry to blame him." (Fahie, J. J.,
_Galileo, His Life and Work_.)
[10] See Routledge, R., _A Popular History of Science_, pp. 135-36, for a
good digest of Bacon's inductive investigation, as a result of which he
arrived at the conclusion that "Heat is an expansive bridled motion,
struggling in the small particles of bodies."
[11] Bacon himself died a victim of one of his inductive experiments.
Wishing to try out his theory that cold would prevent or retard
putrefaction, he killed a chicken, cleaned it, and packed it in snow. In
so doing he contracted a cold which caused his death.
CHAPTER XVII
[1] See footnote 1, p. 272, on the origin of the term. Six years before
the publication of the _Tractate_, Milton had visited Italy, and had been
much entertained in Florence by members of the Academy and University
there. In the _Tractate_ he outlined a plan for a series of classical
Academies for England, many of which were established. From England the
term was carried to America, and became the name for a great development
of semi-private secondary schools which flourished during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
[2] Unlike England and France, the German lands long remained feudal and
not united. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century Germany was
made up of more than three hundred little principalities, of which sixty
were free cities. Each little principality was self-governing and
maintained its little court.
[3] Richard Mulcaster (1531-1611), for forty-eight years a famous London
Latin grammar-school master, often classed as a precursor of the sense
realists, in two books, published in 1581 and 1582, had urged the great
importance of a study of the English tongue, and of using it as a medium
for instruction. In his _Elementarie_ (1582) he had said: "Our own
language bears the joyful title of our liberty and freedom, the Latin
remembers us of our thralldom and bondage. I love Rome, but London better;
I favor Italy, but England more. I honor the Latin, but I worship the
English." (R. 226.)
[4] The school was opened with 433 boys and girls enrolled. It was divided
into six classes. In the first three German only was used. In the first
two classes the children were taught to read and write German, Genesis
being the reading book of the second class. In the third class German
grammar was studied. Music, religion, and the elements of arithmetic were
also taught in these classes. In the fourth class Latin was begun,
studying Terence, and Latin grammar was worked out from the constructions.
In the sixth and highest class Greek was taught. A good education was to
be given in six years, through the saving of time.
[5] This was written out in his native Czech tongue, but was not published
at the time. A quarter of a century later it appeared in Latin, with his
collected works, as published by his patron at Amsterdam (1657). It was
then forgotten for two centuries. In 1841 the manuscript was found at
Lissa, and published in the original at Prague, in 1848. The first English
edition appeared in 1896.
[6] See the English edition edited by M. W. Keatinge, A. and C. Black,
London, 1896.
[7] The following is illustrative: "Sec. 518 (Geometria). Ex concursu
linearum fit angulus qui est vel rectus, quern linea incidens
perpendicularis efficit, ut est (in subjecto schemate) angulus A C B; vel
acutus, minor recto, A ut B C D; vel obtusus, major recto, ut A C D."
[Illustration:
B D
| /
|/ A-------------
C ]
[8] A very good reprint of the 1727 English edition, with pictures from
the first edition of 1658, was brought out by C. W. Bardeen, of Syracuse,
New York, in 1887. This ought to be in all libraries where the history of
education is taught.
[9] Basedow's _Elementarwerk mit Kupfern_ (Elementary Reading Book, with
copperplate pictures), published in 1773 (see p. 535), was the first
attempt, and not a particularly successful one either, to improve on the
_Orbis Pictus_.
[10] This term was at first applied in derision, just as Methodism was
applied to the English religious reformers in the eighteenth century, but
the term was soon made reputable by the earnestness and ability of those
who accepted it.
[11] Francke's father had been counselor to Duke Ernest of Gotha, who had
created for his little duchy the most modern-type school system of the
seventeenth century. How much Francke's progressive ideas in educational
matters go back to the work of Duke Ernest forms an interesting
speculation.
[12] "Francke had the rare ability to see clearly what needed doing, and
then to do it regardless of obstacles or consequences. The magnitude of
his work in Halle is simply marvelous, and yet what he actually
accomplished is insignificant in comparison with what he inspired others
to do. He showed how practical Christianity could be incorporated in the
work of the common schools; his plan was immediately adopted by Frederick
William I and made well-nigh universal in Prussia. He showed how the
Realien could be profitably employed in a Latin school, and even made a
constituent part of a university preparatory course; as a result of his
methods, and especially of his suggestion that schools should be founded
for the exclusive purpose of fitting the youth of the citizen class for
practical life, there has since grown up in Germany a class of Real-
schools." (Russell, J. E., _German Higher Schools_, p. 64.)
[13] Paulsen, Fr., _The German Universities_, p. 36.
[14] As late as 1805, according to Paulsen, of the whole number of
students in the universities of Prussia, there were but 144 in the
combined medical faculties, as against 555 in theology, and 1036 in law.
[15] Francke relates that, as a student at Erfurt (c. 1675), he was able
to study physics and botany, along with his theological studies. Oxford
records show the publication of a list of plants in the "Physick Garden"
there as early as 1648. The garden was endowed about that time by the Earl
of Danby, and in 1764 lectures on botany were begun there. Lord Bacon, in
his _Advancement of Learning_ (1605), had written: "We see likewise that
some places instituted for physic (medicinae) have annexed the commodity
of gardens for simples of all sorts, and do likewise command the use of
dead bodies for anatomies."
[16] Thomasius was made professor of theology, and Francke professor of
Greek and Oriental languages. Both had been expelled from the University
of Leipzig. Christian Wolff, who had been banished by Frederick William I,
was recalled and made professor of philosophy. It was he who "made
philosophy talk German."
CHAPTER XVIII
[1] Quick, R. H., _Essays on Educational Reformers_, 26. ed., p. 97.
[2] Locke was the first to lay the basis for modern scientific psychology
to supersede the philosophic psychology of Plato and Aristotle. In his
_Essay on the Conduct of the Human Understanding_ (1690) upon which he
spent many years of labor, he first applied the methods of scientific
observation to the mind, analyzed experiences, and employed introspection
and comparative mental study. He thus built up a psychology based on the
analysis of experiences, and came to the conclusion that our knowledge is
derived by reflection on experience coming through sensation. He is
consequently called the founder of empirical psychology, and the
forerunner of modern experimental psychology and child study. His
philosophy, and his theory of education as well, thus came to be a
philosophy of experience--a rejection of mere authority, and a constant
appeal to reason as a guide.
[3] "Freedom and self-reliance, these are the watchwords of these two
marvelously modern men (Montaigne and Locke). Expansion, real education,
drawing out, widening out, that is the burden of their preaching; and
voices in the wilderness theirs were! Narrowness, bigotry, flippancy,
inertia, these were the rule until Rousseau's time, and even his voice was
to fall upon deaf ears in England." (Monroe, Jas. P., _Evolution of the
Educational Ideal_, p. 122.)
[4] Schmidt, Karl, _Geschichte der Pädagogik_, translated in Barnard's
_American Journal of Education_.
[5] Rules for the schools of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
[6] Duke Eberhard Louis's _Renewed Organization of the German School_,
1729; republished 1782.
[7] One of the earliest horn books known appears in the illuminated
manuscript shown in Figure 44, which dates from 1503. The first definitely
known horn book in England dates from 1587, while most, of the specimens
found in museums date from about the middle of the eighteenth century. As
improvements or variations of the horn book, cardboard sheets and wooden
squares, known as battledores, appeared after 1770. On these the
illustrated alphabet was printed. (See Tuer, A. W., _History of the Horn
Book_, 2 vols., illustrated, London, 1886, for detailed descriptions.)
[8] The diversity of religious primers which had grown up by 1565 led
Henry VIII to cause to be issued a unified and official Primer, containing
the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Credo, and the Ten Commandments.
[9] The title-page of an edition of 1715 declares that edition to be:
"_The Protestant Tutor_, instructing Youth and Others, in the compleat
method of _Spelling, Reading, and Writing True English_: Also discovering
to them the Notorious _Errors_, Damnable _Doctrines_, and cruel
_Massacres_ of the bloody _Papists_ which _England_ may expect from a
_Popish_ Successor."
[10] This was compiled by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, called
together by Parliament, in 1643, composed of 121 clergymen, 30 of the
laity, and 5 special commissioners from Scotland. It held 1163 sessions,
extending over six years, and framed the series of 107 questions and
answers which appeared in the Primer as "The Shorter Catechism."
[11] So great was the sale of this book that the author was able to
support his family during the twenty years (1807-27) he was at work on his
_Dictionary of the English Language_, entirely from the royalties from the
_Speller_ though the copyright returns were less than one cent a copy. At
the time of his death (1843), the sales were still approximately a million
copies a year, and the book is still on sale.
[12] In Nuremberg, as an example of German practice, the guild of writing
and arithmetic masters continued, throughout all of the eighteenth
century, and even into the nineteenth, as an organization separate from
that of other types of teachers.
[13] Francke, in his Institutions at Halle (p. 418), had tried to develop
a number-concept, and apply the teaching. In the Braunschweig-Lüneburg
school decree of 1737 appeared directions for beginning number work by
counting the fingers, apples, etc., and basing the multiplication table on
addition. A few German writers during the eighteenth century suggested
better instruction, Basedow (chapter XXII) tried to institute reform in
the teaching of the subject, but it was left for Pestalozzi (chapter XXI)
to give the first real impetus to the rational teaching of the subject.
[14] Such offices were not considered in any sense as degrading, and the
attaching of the new duty of instructing the young of the parish in
reading and religion dignified still more the other church office. As
schools grew in importance there was a gradual shifting of emphasis, and
finally a dropping of the earlier duties. Many early school contracts in
America (Rs. 105; 236) called for such church duties on the part of the
parish teacher. See also footnote, p. 370.
[15] In 1722 country schoolmasters in Prussia were ordered selected from
tailors, weavers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and carpenters, and in 1738
they were granted the tailoring monopoly in their villages, to help them
to live. Later Frederick the Great ordered that his crippled and
superannuated soldiers should be given teaching positions in the
elementary vernacular schools of Prussia.
[16] The "Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge," organized in
1609 to aid the Church and provide schools at home, and the "Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," organized in 1702 to
supply ministers and teachers for churches and schools in the English
colonies.
[17] In 1704 the ordinary charge in London for a "School of 50 Boys
Cloathed comes to about £75 per Annum, for which a School-Room, Books, and
Firing are provided, a Master paid, and to each Boy is given yearly, 3
Bands, 1 Cap, 1 Coat, 1 Pair of Stockings, and one Pair of Shooes." A
girls' school of the same size cost £60 per annum, which paid for the
room, books, mistress, fixing and providing each girl with "2 Coyfs, 2
Bands, 1 Gown and Petticoat, 1 Pair of knit Gloves, 1 Pair of Stockings,
and 2 Pair of Shooes."
[18] McCarthy, Justin H., _Ireland since the Union_, p. 13.
[19] Frederick the Great, in the General School Regulations issued in 1763
(R. 274, § 15), strictly prohibited the keeping of "hedge schools" in the
towns and rural districts of Prussia.
[20] Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_ (1678,) Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_
(1719), and _Gulliver's Travels_ (1726), The publication of these
tremendously stimulated the desire to read.