SOME TERMS IN DISPUTE.
It is inevitable that confusion of thought occurs in dealing with any department of knowledge, unless there is a general agreement as to the meaning to be assigned to the terms which are employed. With the possible exception of Economics, Education suffers more than any other science from the ambiguous use of terms. Consequently it is advisable, at this juncture, to indicate the sense in which some of the terms frequently used in this thesis are understood. This is particularly necessary because the terms we propose to consider are often used in a sense different from that in which, in our opinion, they were employed in medieval times. We have selected the following for consideration—School, Free, Grammar, Song, Writing, and Reading.
School.
When the term “school” is employed to-day, it is usually taken to mean the “school-house,” i.e. the building in which the work of the school is carried on. It must, however, be emphasised that in medieval times a school-house was an “accident.” Specific buildings for teaching purposes were a comparatively late development in the history of schools. The term “school” considered etymologically means “leisure,” and probably the modern idea of school developed from the fact that the leisure time to which σχολὴ specially related was that which was given up to discussion. A second stage of development is reached when the term is restricted to organised school. The essential idea of a school at this stage is that of a master and his scholars. The master might be a man of over seventy years of age and his pupils men of middle age (as was probably the case in the school conducted by Archbishop Theodore), or the master might simply be a youth, and his pupils a few village children learning their letters, as would be the case in the schools taught by the youths preparing for the priesthood in the house of the parish priest; in each case the term “school” was equally applied and considered equally appropriate. The place where the school was held was a matter of indifference. It might be held in the open air, in the cloisters of a monastery, in some part of a collegiate church, or possibly in some more suitable place. Then, too, the school might be held at regular intervals or it might simply meet occasionally. Briefly we may say that the conception of “school” was in a state of flux, and merely implied that a master and pupils met together for purposes of instruction.
We may point out here that it would assist in clear thought if the use of the term “school” could be restricted to those cases in which the erection of a school-house constituted a definite and objective sign of the existence of a school, and to employ the term “class” for such gatherings of teacher and pupils as were held otherwise. If this suggestion could be adopted investigations into the origin of schools would become much more definite and valuable. To illustrate this statement, we may consider the statement in Bede, that Sigebert in 631 “instituit scolam, in qua pueri litteris erudirentur.”[166] What does this phrase precisely mean? If the statement had been that Sigebert founded a monastery or a church, then we should not be in any doubt on the matter. We have not been able to trace in any edition of the writings of Bede any interpretation of “scola,” as the various editors take it for granted that its meaning is not in dispute. Thus Bright in dealing with the passage in Bede we have quoted, assumes that a school existed at Canterbury in connection with the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, and that the school which Bishop Felix established at the wish of King Sigebert was probably attached to the primitive East Anglian Cathedral which had been erected at Dunwich, then a town on the Suffolk coast, but now annihilated by the sea.[167] But neither at Canterbury nor at Dunwich would a specific building for the school be provided. Consequently the phrase from Bede, which is an important passage in the history of English educational history, simply means that certain priests, who had obtained some experience in the art of teaching, were specifically assigned the duty of teaching the Latin language in classes held in the church buildings, to those who might care to attend.
We have not found it possible in this thesis to distinguish carefully between a “class” and a “school.” We are obliged to content ourselves with indicating the danger that exists of reading into the medieval use of the term school the meaning commonly applied to the term at the present time.
Grammar.
The term “grammar” gradually superseded that of “letters” as the specified purpose for which schools were founded. So far as England is concerned, the first occasion on which the actual words “scola grammatice” occur, is in a document of the latter half of the eleventh century.[168] The term became more common in the thirteenth century owing to the necessity of distinguishing grammar schools from the “schools” of the higher faculties in the universities. “The first actual use of the term ‘grammar school’ in English appears to be in 1387 A.D. when John of Trevisa, translating from the Latin of Ralph Higden’s ‘Polychronicon,’ mentions a ‘gramer scole’ held at Alexandria.”[169] By the fourteenth century therefore the phrase “grammar school” had entered into ordinary colloquial speech.
But what does this term “grammar” exactly denote? On the plinths of the right bay of the great west doors of Chartres Cathedral are to be found statues of the Seven Liberal Arts. With reference to these statues, Dr. Clerval in his work on “Chartres, sa Cathédrale et ses Monuments,” writes:—
“Les autres cordons représentent les sept Arts libéraux qui ornaient l’esprit de la Vierge symbolisés chacun par une femme portant les attributs de chaque science, et par un homme, le corypliée de cette science, assis devant un pupître, avec plume, canif, encre, éponges, règles. Ainsi au bas du premier cordon de droite, c’est la Musique frappant trois cloches avec un marteau, et dessous Pythagore. Au second cordon à gauche en bas, c’est la Dialectique, portant un lizard subtil et un sceptre, et dessous Aristotle; puis la Rhétorique, discourant, et dessous Ciceron; la Géométrie avec un compas, et dessous Euclide; l’Arithmetique (en redescendant) avec un livre, et dessous Boèce ou Pythagore; l’Astronomie regardant le Ciel et portant un boisseau, et dessous Plotonée, portant une lunette; enfin la Grammaire, assise, menaçant de verges deux jeunes écoliers lisant à ses pieds, et au-dessous Priscien ou Donat. Ces représentations des Arts très curieuses sont les plus anciennes avec celles de Laôn. Elles s’expliquent à Chartres par les écolâtres de cette Eglise, spécialement Thiery, auteur de l’Heptabuclion, vers 1140.”[170]