THE ORIGIN OF THE GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The Chantries' Act of 1547, which we have previously described, expressly
stipulated that its provisions should not apply either to the
universities, or to the cathedral churches, or to "the Colledg called St.
Marye Colledg of Winchester of the foundation of Bishopp Wikeham: nor to
the College of Eton."[592] It is these two latter schools with which we
are now concerned, and more particularly with the questions relating to
their origin and purpose.
A great deal of the current misconception of the origin and purpose of
these schools may be removed if we reconstruct for ourselves the special
ecclesiastical and educational features of the time. Our starting point in
this connection must be the Black Death which, as we have shown,[593]
caused so great a scarcity of priests and of candidates for the
priesthood. William of Wykeham, desiring to give thanks to Almighty God
because He had "enriched us, though unworthy, with ample honours and
beyond our deserts raised us to divers degrees and dignities,"[594]
founded "a perpetual college of seventy poor scholars, clerks, to study
theology, canon and civil law and arts in the university of Oxford."[595]
In erecting this college, Wykeham was only following the example which was
already well established at the universities, since several colleges had
previously been established both at Oxford and at Cambridge. Experience
soon convinced him that to found a college was one thing; to obtain a
supply of students, who were qualified to profit by the proposed course
was quite another; especially as, "through default of good teaching and
sufficient learning in grammar, (they) often fall into the danger of
failing, where they had set before themselves the desire of success."[596]
Nor was a lack of knowledge of Latin the only difficulty. A greater
obstacle was the poverty of the prospective student of the period. Wykeham
refers to this, "There are and will be, hereafter, many poor scholars
suffering from want of money and poverty, whose means barely suffice or
will suffice in the future to allow them to continue and profit in the
aforesaid art of Grammar." Neither was this poverty a relative poverty, a
mere "facon de parler," as some would maintain. The university itself was
poor, and had scarcely any funds available for general purposes.[597] "The
university students of the Middle Ages were drawn from every class of
society, excluding probably as a rule the very lowest, though not
excluding the very poorest."[598] We also note that poor students received
from the chancellor a licence to beg.[599]
The writer of _Piers Plowman_ illustrates the contemporary opinion of the
social standing of many of those who proceeded to the priesthood.
"Now might each sowter his son setten to schole,
And each beggar's brat in the book learne,
And worth to a writer and with a lorde dwell,
Or falsely to a frere the fiend for to serven,
So of that beggar's brat a Bishop that worthen,
Among the peers of the land presse to sythen;
And lordes sons lowly to the lorde's loute,
Knyghtes crooked hem to, and coucheth ful lowe,
And his sire a sowtor y-soiled with grees,
His teeth with toyling of lether battered as a sawe."
The "Norwich Corporation Records" contain an account which, even if not
typical, is certainly illustrative of the way in which the sons of many
poor men found their way to the priesthood. The account to which we refer
is the story of his life which was given by "Sir William Green" when
undergoing examination on the charge of being a spy. He stated that he was
the son of a labouring man living at Boston, Lincolnshire, and that he
"lerned gramer by the space of 2 yeres." For about five or six years he
was engaged in manual occupation with his father; next, he is at school
again "by the space of 2 yeres and in that time receyved benet and accolet
in the freres Austen in Boston of one frere Gaunt, then beyng suffragan of
the diocese of Lincoln." Subsequently he is found at Cambridge, where he
enters upon his studies, and supports himself, partly by labour, partly by
"going to the colleges, and gate his mete and drynke of almes." After an
interval, he "obteyned a licence for one year of Mr. Capper, than being
deputee to the Chancellor of the said univ'sitie, under his seal of office
whereby ... (he) gathered toguether in Cambridgeshire releaff toward their
exhibicion to scole."[600]
We need not follow the fortunes or misfortunes of this pretended priest
any further. The record gives the names of three men who were of the
lowest social grade, and who were evidently unscrupulous, as they not only
forged begging licences, but also forged letters of ordination. Though we
do not claim that the case is typical of the social class from which
students come, yet, on the other hand, it should not be regarded as
entirely exceptional; in other words, the class of person who received the
licence to beg as an accredited student of the university must have been a
commonly recognised one. We must remember, at the same time, as Dr.
Hastings Rashdall points out, that the example of the Friars had made
mendicity comparatively respectable. "Many a man who would have been
ashamed to dig was not ashamed to beg; and the begging scholar was
invested with something like the sacredness of the begging Friar."[601]
Realising that it was necessary that prospective priests should study
grammar before they proceeded to the universities, and assuming that these
embryo scholars were literally poor, and could not afford even to attend
the local grammar schools, which, as we have seen, were common in medieval
England, we ask what action would a man such as William of Wykeham, who
was desirous of perpetuating a memorial to himself and of being of service
to the Church generally, naturally take?
The answer to this question depends partly on the nature of the models
available for imitation. We have previously shown that imitation has
played a large part in English educational development. The first obvious
model for imitation was the ordinary one of providing a master who should
teach grammar freely to all boys who might care to come to him. This plan
naturally commended itself at first to William of Wykeham, and was adopted
by him. In 1373 he made an agreement with Master Richard Herton,
Grammarian, that he "should instruct and teach faithfully and diligently
in Grammar the poor scholars whom the said Father keeps and shall keep at
his own expense; and shall receive no others without the licence of the
said Father."[602]
This arrangement would scarcely meet the purpose which Wykeham had in
mind. He wished to provide for suitable poor youths in all parts of the
country, and not only for those whose homes were in the locality of
Winchester.
Again we ask, what models were available? Provision for the feeding of
poor scholars had been made, two centuries previously, in connection with
the Hospital of St. Cross, about a mile distant from the city of
Winchester, by Bishop Henry of Blois. At this hospital thirteen poor and
infirm men were lodged and boarded, and, in addition, one hundred of the
poor of the city were provided with a dinner each day. Among these one
hundred poor were to be included, "thirteen poor scholars of the city
school," who were to be sent there "by the Master of the High Grammar
School of the city of Winchester."
A similar custom had prevailed "from time immemorial" at the Hospital of
St. Nicholas where forty loaves were to be provided each week for the
scholars who attended Pontefract School.[603]
Then too, the provision of a house for the lodging of scholars was a form
of charity whose origin could be traced back to the twelfth century at
least. About 1150, Walchelin, the moneyer of Derby, and Goda, his wife,
bequeathed certain property to the abbey of Derby "on this trust that the
hall shall be for a school of clerks and the chambers shall be for the
house of a master and clerks for ever."[604]
A more immediate example for Wykeham in his desire to make provision for
the maintenance and education of "pauperes et indigentes clericii" was
Bishop Stapledon of Exeter. He wished to provide for the "maintenance of
boys studying grammar and receiving instruction in morals and life" in
connection with the Hospital of St. John at Exeter. The accomplishment of
this purpose was prevented by his death, but Bishop Grandisson, his
successor, arranged in 1332 that the master and brethren of the hospital
were to provide accommodation and all other necessaries for a master of
grammar and fourteen boys. Prior to admission, the boys were to know their
psalter and to be familiar with plain song.[605]
Several similar instances may be quoted. Thus, about the close of the
twelfth century, the Archdeacon of Durham, of the time, provided an
endowment for the purpose of supplying three scholars of Durham School
with food and lodging at the almonry.[606] In 1262 Bishop Giles of
Salisbury founded a hostel in that city "for the perpetual reception and
maintenance of a warden, two chaplains and twenty poor, needy,
well-behaved and teachable scholars."[607] In 1364, Walter de Merton,
Chancellor of England, gave certain manors "for the perpetual maintenance
of twenty scholars living in the schools at Oxford or elsewhere."[608]
About 1387, Bishop Burghersh of Lincoln provided that the chantry founded
by him should maintain six poor boys who were "professing the art of
Grammar."
In addition to these models, there existed the models furnished by the
collegiate churches and the monasteries. The collegiate churches were
under the control of a dean or provost and a small number of officials;
generally speaking, a master of grammar was also attached to the Church.
These colleges were non-resident. The priests attached to the church lived
in their own homes. A monastery was presided over by an abbot or prior,
the monks were resident, and a small number of choir boys were also
attached.
It does not require any great stretch of the imagination to conceive of
William of Wykeham pondering over all these possibilities. In the end, the
monastic idea seems to have triumphed with this important distinction
that, for the adult monks, were substituted "scholares pauperes et
indigentes."
A study of an illustration of Winchester School serves to support this
conception. The most prominent feature of the college buildings was the
church. Divine worship was to be effectively rendered daily. Grouped round
the church were the cloisters and the chambers, the dwelling places for
the poor scholar clerks. The more closely the building is examined, the
more clearly is its relation to the monastic ideal realised.
The influence of the monastic ideal is even more evident in connection
with the foundation of Eton College, the second of our great public
schools in respect of date of origin. The foundation charter of this
school was sealed on October 11th, 1440. In this charter, Henry VI., the
founder of the college, who was then eighteen years of age, declared his
intention to establish a college[609] "in the honour and for the support
of our great and most holy mother in the parish church of Eton by Windsor,
which is not far removed from the place of our birth."[610]
This college, as originally planned, was to consist of a "provost and ten
priests, four clerks, and six chorister boys whose duty it shall be to
serve divine worship there daily, and twenty-five poor and needy scholars
whose duty it shall be to learn grammar and moreover twenty-five poor and
weakly men whose duty it shall be always to pray in the same place for our
good estate while we live and for our soul when we have passed from this
light ... also of a master or teacher in grammar, whose duty it shall be
to teach the said needy scholars and all others whatsoever and
whencesoever of our realm of England coming to the said college, the
rudiments of grammar gratis without exacting money or anything else."[611]
The monastic conception is brought out prominently. At the head of the
institution were the provost and ten priests, corresponding to the abbot
and the obedientaries of a convent, next we find the chorister boys who
correspond to the boys of the almonry school who assisted in divine
worship, next comes the support of poor and weakly men, a common feature
of many monasteries, finally there are the "poor and needy scholars" to
take the place ordinarily occupied by monks.
In 1441 Henry VI. founded a college in Cambridge University by the name of
King's College of St. Nicholas. At first, there was no connection between
Eton and King's College, but in 1443, new statutes were made which
enlarged the number of students who could be admitted there and also
arranged for the admission of "commensales" who were to pay for their
board. The addition of "commensales" accentuates still further the
influence of the monastic model. From early times, it had been customary
for the heads of monasteries to receive a kind of "parlour boarder" and
it would be particularly fitting that, in an institution which was
primarily educational and not merely devotional, arrangements should be
made for the reception of those scholars who were able and willing to pay.
Henry showed his interest in the school by his issue of a warrant in 1446,
in which, after reciting that he had founded a college at Eton for
"seventy scholars whose duty it is to learn the science of grammar and
sixteen choristers whose duty likewise it shall be, when they have been
sufficiently instructed in singing, to learn grammar, also a master
teacher in grammar and an usher to teach the aforesaid boys, scholars and
choristers,"[612] he proceeded to declare that "it shall not be lawful for
anyone, of whatever authority he may be, at any time to presume to keep,
set up, or found any such public grammar school in the town of Windsor or
elsewhere within the space of ten English miles from our said Royal
College."[613]
This warrant is specially significant in two respects. One is, that it
shows that the institution, founded by Henry VI., was not intended to
differ in any essential respect from the other local grammar schools which
existed in various parts of the country. On the contrary, steps were taken
to prevent opposition. There was a real danger that the gratuitous
character of the instruction given at Eton might tempt masters to open fee
paying schools, with the inevitable result that the social prestige of the
school would be lowered. The other significant fact arises from the use of
the phrase "public grammar school." This is the first use of the term in
this sense which we have been able to trace, and it is probable that we
have here the first occasion on which the word is employed as an
alternative for "free," which denotes, as we have explained, that the
school was open to all comers.
It is not necessary that we should consider any further the history of the
public schools. This subject has already been fully treated by others,
notably by Mr. Leach in his _History of Winchester College_, and by Sir
H. C. Maxwell Lyte in his _History of Eton College_.
We may, however, note three respects in which Winchester first, and
subsequently Eton differed from the scholastic institutions, which had
previously been established.
1. The scale on which Winchester College was carried out, clearly
differentiates it from all earlier foundations. The number of scholars for
whom Wykeham provided, and the value of the endowments attached to the
school, mark a considerable advance on what had been attempted previously.
2. It was a new idea to associate a school in a district remote from a
university centre with a college at Oxford. Rashdall points out that
Robert Egglesfield, the founder of Queen's College, had hoped to have had
at Oxford a school of boys in connection with his college. This proposal
was not carried out. That which Egglesfield simply proposed for Oxford,
Wykeham actually accomplished at Winchester.[614]
3. Winchester College is the first example of a boarding school, pure and
simple. Collegiate churches had previously provided for the gratuitous
instruction of scholars, but the real object of the establishment of a
collegiate church was that divine worship should be rendered in an
effective and dignified manner. Endowments had previously been provided
for the feeding and lodging of scholars, but this was to be effected in
connection with an existing charitable institution. At Winchester, for the
first time, an institution was established for the combined purpose of
teaching and of maintaining scholars, and for those purposes alone. "The
really important new departure was taken, a real step in advance made,
when Wykeham made his school a separate and distinct foundation.... The
corporate name of 'Warden and scholars, clerks' stamped the school and the
schoolboys as the aim and object of the foundation."[615]
One other question must be considered. The great public schools to-day are
attended by the sons of wealthy parents: were these schools founded
originally for children of the social grade who now attend them? The
foundation deeds state explicitly that they were established for "pauperes
et indigentes scolares."
Mr. Leach writes vehemently on the subject. "A great deal of discussion
has taken place, and much excellent eloquence run to waste on the
qualification of 'poor and needy.' It was alleged ... that there had been
a robbery of the poor in the matter of endowed schools; that the persons
entitled, under the founder's statutes, to the benefits of Winchester
College, were the poor in the sense of the poor law, the destitute poor,
the gutter poor, or, at least, the poor labouring classes. There is not, I
believe, a title or a shred of justification for any such allegation in
the case of any public or endowed grammar school founded before
1627."[616]
The following arguments are advanced by Mr. Leach in support of the views
he enunciates:--
(1) He urges that the test of poverty from the school point of view, was
the oath which every scholar had to take on reaching fifteen years of age:
"I have nothing whereby I know I can spend beyond five marks a year."[617]
Now, as there were at this date sixty-seven livings in the diocese of
Winchester below this value, and as L1 6s. 8d. was the pay of a skilled
artisan of that date, Mr. Leach maintains that the possession of L3 6s.
8d. was a very considerable income for a boy.
In reply it may be pointed out that the oath would provide for extreme
cases only. In this connection, it may be mentioned that it was proposed,
towards the close of the reign of Henry VIII., to establish a free grammar
school in connection with Exeter Cathedral. Forty of the scholars of this
school were to be admitted without making any payment for their
instruction and, in addition, they were to receive a shilling a week for
the purpose of paying for "their commons within the citie." Now, the test
of poverty to qualify the candidates for this position was, that their
parents were not to be in receipt of a higher income than L300 a year,
possibly equal to L5,000 to-day.[618] If we assume that the money payments
of the opening years of the twentieth century were forty times the value
of such payments in the fourteenth century, even then the extreme limit of
the income of a candidate for admission to Winchester was L133 6s. 8d. of
modern money. It is, therefore, obvious that the class of boy for which
Winchester College was intended must have been of a lower social scale
than that for which the proposed cathedral grammar school at Exeter was to
be established.
(2) By a clause which forms a postscript to Rubric XVI., it was provided
that "sons of noble and powerful persons ... to the number of ten _might_
be instructed and informed in grammar within the college, without charge
to the college." This clause Mr. Leach describes as containing the "germ"
of the public school system, and he claims that he has traced among the
early commoners of the college "young noblemen, scions of county families
and relations of judges and chancery officials."
We contend that this does not apply to the case at all, inasmuch as
"parlour boarders," as Mr. Leach himself points out,[619] had frequently
been received in monastic houses. Even apart from the fact that the
details which he gives are meagre, and that his conclusions are by no
means demonstrated, it may be maintained that the presence of wealthy boys
at school, under special circumstances, does not invalidate the contention
that the boys normally found there were the "poor and needy." Thus Dr.
Hastings Rashdall, in speaking of the students at the university, states
that "there was the scion of the princely or noble house who lived in the
style to which he was accustomed at home, in a hostel of his own with a
numerous 'familia' including poorer but well born youths who dressed like
him.... At the other end of the social ladder there was the poor scholar,
reduced to beg for his living, or to become the servitor of a college, or
of a master or well-to-do student."[620] If the poor, in the sense of
those who had to beg for a living or earn it, whilst they were at
college, by manual labour, were not excluded from the university, why
should it be assumed that they did not rank among the "pauperes et
indigentes scolares" for whom Winchester College was expressly founded?
We may also point out that it was not customary, at this time, for boys of
good family, or even the sons of wealthy and prosperous merchants and
tradesmen, to be educated by being sent to school. The instances which may
be given are few and inconclusive. The usual practice adopted for the
education of these young people, as we have shown, was either by sending
them to a great household or, at a later date, by having a private tutor
in the house. Evidence may also be adduced to show that youths of good
social standing rarely proceeded to the universities at this time. Thus
Dr. Furnivall points out that, up to the close of the sixteenth century,
only three names of noblemen and nine of sons of knights are mentioned in
Cooper's _Athenae Cantabrigienses_ and only nineteen men of noble or
knightly birth in Wood's _Athenae Oxonienses_.[621]
We may next pass to consider the evidence for the contention which we
advance, that, when Wykeham built his college, he intended it for those
who were too poor to pay for an education, irrespective of their social
position, and that the term "poor" did not exclude the children of men who
were members of the labouring classes of the community.
(1) As we have reiterated so frequently, the actual term used in the
foundation deed is "pauperes et indigentes." Mr. Leach maintains that this
simply means the "relatively poor," the poor relations of the nobility, or
the children of prosperous merchants. His contention seems to be an
unwarranted extension of the meaning of the phrase, and it will not be
possible to quote from any charter or document of the time in which this
special meaning is assigned to the term.
(2) Even sixty years later, at the foundation of Eton College, when the
character of Winchester School would be definitely fixed, when King Henry
VI. desired to establish a foundation which should exceed that of Wykeham,
he associated with the school an almshouse for "twenty-five poor and
weakly men." The associating of an almshouse with the school marks the
purpose of the school as a charitable endowment for the lower classes of
the community.
(3) The middle class of the fifteenth century was a wealthy class. In the
eleventh century, there were only two social grades in England, the
nobility and the various classes of tenants. The middle class, which
gradually grew up, won its way through its wealth. Wealthy and prosperous
merchants would seek to emulate the nobility of the land, and send their
sons to the houses of nobles for their education or--at the least--to
provide them with a tutor. It may also be added that the clergy of the
period, who were practically the professional class, were celibates.
(4) Mr. Leach himself, undesignedly, applies examples to show that the
sons of serfs attended schools. He instances that in 1295, Walter, the son
of Reginald the carpenter, "was licensed to attend school" subject to the
payment of a fine.[622] Similarly, in 1344, a villein at Coggeshall in
Essex was fined for sending his son to school without license. At Harrow
in 1384, a villein was deprived of his horse for sending his son to school
without license. Mr. Leach continues "the fourteenth century manor rolls
all over the country are dotted with fines for sending boys, 'ad scolas
clericales,' to schools to become clerks."[623] Now, it would appear to us
obvious, that if some serfs sent their sons to schools after paying a
license, others would attempt to do so without payment and would probably
succeed in doing so. But the point which is established, without doubt, is
that it was customary for children of parents of the lowest social grade
to attend school.
When these arguments are fairly considered, it is claimed that the
institutions of Eton and Winchester were originally intended for boys
whose parents were "poor and needy"--and not simply for scions of the
nobility or the sons of prosperous merchants. The only condition of
admission, practically, was that these boys would subsequently proceed to
the universities, in order that their course of preparation for the
priesthood might be completed.