(5) “That the imposition of some charge (e.g. admission and quarterages) was not at all compatible with the title of free school.”[172]
On the other hand, Mr. Leach maintains that the average school of the period did charge fees and that the schools which were described as “free” grammar schools were those in which no tuition charges were made.[173] He quotes the case of the Newland Grammar School which was founded under licence in mortmain of 1445-6 for “an honeste and discrete preste beinge sufficiently lerned in the arte of gramer to kepe and teche a grammer scole ther half-free for ever; that is to saie to take of scolers lernynge grammer 8d. the quarter and of other lernynge lettres and to rede, 4d. the quarter, within a house there called the chauntrie house or scoole house.”
In replying to the suggestions of Dr. Kennedy we would point out that the nature of the control exercised by bishops, monasteries or colleges over schools is so slight as to be practically non-existent. Consequently, to make the fact of such freedom the distinctive epithet of such schools seems scarcely to be warranted. Moreover, these “free” schools were founded as a general rule either by bishops personally or by ecclesiastical persons or by persons in the closest sympathy with the existing ecclesiastical system. It is highly improbable that they would deliberately found an institution which was to be “free” from association with the Church.
A similar criticism applies to the contention advanced by Mr. Leach. As Dr. Kennedy points out, the official schools of the Church were gratuitous from the time of their origin. Then, as we shall show in a subsequent chapter, the schools in which fees were charged were as a general rule those which may be classed as “private adventure” schools. Payment of fees in Church schools is probably due to the custom which would naturally arise that boys would make offerings to their teachers at certain times,[174] and that in course of time this custom would become an unwritten law. The point we wish to emphasise here is that the official schools of the Church were always “free schools” in the sense of being free from payment. This was such a generally well-known and recognised fact that no need existed to apply the term “free” as the distinctive epithet for the purpose of distinguishing between one grammar school and another. In other words, our contention is that all the Church schools were “gratuitous” whether or not they were described as free schools.
It is therefore necessary for us to advance another hypothesis to account for the use of the term, and we suggest that the term “free” means “open to all comers,” i.e. that admission to the school was not restricted to any particular social grade or to those who were preparing for any particular profession or to those who were living in any particular locality. A free school, in fact, denotes a public school. The following reasons in support of this suggestion may be advanced.
(1) Certain schools of the period were necessarily restricted. Thus, only those who were destined for the monastic life were allowed to attend the monastery schools; the almonry schools were confined to those who gained admission to them, and were not open to all who wished to attend; some of the cathedral schools also were open only to specified classes of persons.[175]
(2) As the general idea of the period was that each parish was self-sufficing and concerned with its own parishioners only a free school would mean one available for the public generally. Each town regarded every non-burgess of that town as a “foreigner,” and freedom of trade was only allowed to townsmen. Each parish had a responsibility for its own poor; the claim to burial in the churchyard was limited to actual parishioners. This same idea passed on to educational matters. Thus, an entry in the York Episcopal Registers of June 1289 states that the schools of Kinoulton were to be open to parishioners only, “all other clerks and strangers whatsoever being kept out and by no means admitted to the school.”[176]
(3) The term “public” school gradually becomes a substitute for “free” school. Thus, in the “Acte for the due Execution of the Statutes against Jesuits, Seminaries, Preists, Recusants, etc.,” there is a specific reference to “publike or free Grammer Schools.”[177]
(4) The warrant granted in 1446 to Eton College not only provided that it should have a monopoly of teaching grammar within a radius of ten miles, but specifically stated that the school should be open “to all others whatsoever, whencesoever and from whatever parts coming to the said college to learn the same science, in the rudiments of grammar, freely.”[178] This extract clearly shows a different attitude from that specified in (2) above. We may consequently regard the institution of “free” grammar schools as marking a stage in the policy of breaking down the barriers which separated parish from parish and township from township.
We now proceed to consider a special case to test these various suggestions. A school founded by the citizens at Exeter in the sixteenth century was expressly described in the statutes of the school as a “Free Grammar School.” But the same statutes proceed to decree that