13. And that every Christian man zealously accustom his children to Christianity and teach them the Pater Noster and Creed.
22. And we enjoin that every man learn so that he know the Pater Noster and Creed, if he wish to lie in a hallowed grave, or to be worthy of housel; because he is not truly a Christian who will not learn them, nor may he who knows them not receive another man at baptism, not at the bishop’s hands ere he learn them.
21. And we enjoin that priests diligently teach youth, and educate them in crafts that they may have ecclesiastical support.
It is impossible to estimate the extent to which these canons were complied with. It is, however, noteworthy that evidence exists that in the first half of the tenth century it was customary for boys of good family to receive education from a priest. Thus Odo, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 942-959, was taught “by a certain religious man while a boy in the household of the thane Athelhelm.”[102] Again, Odo’s nephew, Oswald, was taught by a priest named Frithegode, who is said “to have been skilled in all the learning of that age in England, both secular and divine.”[103]
In dealing with education in Anglo-Saxon times, it is necessary to use even the slightest evidence of the existence of educational activity. Domesday Book is, of course, the great authority for the social condition of England at this period, and it is essential we should turn to that work for the purpose of investigating whether or not it contains any references which in any way relate to education.
As Professor Vinogradoff tells us, we get a good deal of information in the “Survey” about the tenure of churches.[104] “They are a necessary element of every township organisation. The parish church is the “tun kirke” of Old English times, and a tenement of a hide or two virgates is of right reserved to it.” The parish priest was remunerated in various ways, partly by tithes, partly by glebe, partly by “church scot.” It is in connection with this latter payment that we can trace a connection between the churches and education. In 376 A.D., Gratian issued an edict, which was applied in Britain, that teachers were to be paid in “annones,” that is, a measure of corn. Now “church scot” was a species of tax imposed on houses or buildings for the payment of the priest.[105] There are two passages quoted by Vinogradoff which seem to connect this payment of “church scot” with the “annones,” which were perhaps originally intended as payments for the work of the priests as teachers of schools. On page 441 he writes:—
“Every socman possessed of a hide has to pay one carriage load of corn, called annona, to his parish church, and there is a provision for the case of non-performance of this duty as in Worcestershire.” And on page 418 we read that “the shire gave evidence that the church of Pershore ought to have church rent from 300 hides, that is, one load of corn from every hide in which a franklin is settled.”
It is not suggested that any stress should be laid on these extracts. They are interesting as indicating the possibility that a part of the remuneration of the parish priest was a payment for his services as a teacher.
In Domesday Book itself, three references to education have been traced:—
1. Wilton Church in Wiltshire was endowed for teaching.[106]