CONTENTS.
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| Introduction | [1] | |
| [BOOK I.]—THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. | ||
| [I.] | The Work of the Monasteries | [3] |
| [II.] | Education Under the Secular Clergy | [17] |
| [III.] | The Educational Revival | [31] |
| [BOOK II.]—THE CHURCH IN CONTROL OF EDUCATION. | ||
| Introductory | [44] | |
| [I.] | Educational Labours of the Monasteries | [55] |
| [II.] | Some Terms in Dispute | [63] |
| [III.] | Organization of Education by the Secular Clergy | [76] |
| [IV.] | The Monopoly of School Keeping | [92] |
| [V.] | The Appointment and Tenure of Masters | [104] |
| [VI.] | The Education of the Sons of the Nobility | [117] |
| [BOOK III.]—EDUCATION PASSING OUT OF CHURCH CONTROL. | ||
| [I.] | Social and Economic Changes | [124] |
| [II.] | The Rise of the Universities | [132] |
| [III.] | Gilds and Voluntary Associations | [144] |
| [IV.] | Chantries | [157] |
| [V.] | Monasticism and Education in the Later Middle Ages | [170] |
| [VI.] | The Origin of the Great Public Schools | [188] |
| [VII.] | University Colleges, Colleges and Collegiate Churches in the Later Middle Ages | [202] |
| [VIII.] | Curriculum and Method | [216] |
| [IX.] | The Progress of Education | [232] |
| Appendix | [245] | |
| Index | [256] | |
INTRODUCTION.
The history of education during the Middle Ages is closely interwoven with the history of the Church. Professor Foster Watson quotes with approval Cardinal Newman’s dictum, “Not a man in Europe who talks bravely against the Church but owes it to the Church that he can talk at all.”[1]
It is possible to trace three stages in the development of the English educational system during the period with which we are concerned.
The first stage covers a period from the Introduction of Christianity to the Norman Conquest. The Introduction of Christianity was the means by which education became possible for this country, and so it naturally came about that the provision of facilities for education was generally conceived of as a part of the function of the Church. In this connection it is important to realise the relationship of the State to the Church in Anglo-Saxon times. As Professor Medley points out,[2] the Church and the State during this period were largely identical. The bishops were ex-officio the advisers of the kings, and they sat in the local courts not only exercising jurisdiction in those cases in which the clergy were affected, but also concerning themselves with questions involving the morals of the laity. In a more real sense than at any subsequent time, the Church of England, during the Anglo-Saxon period, was the Church of the English nation. During this time the activities of the Church were essentially the activities of the State, and the work which was done for education might be conceived of, indifferently, as either the work of the Church or of the State.
The second stage dates from the Norman Conquest, which brought to a close this identity of Church and State. William I., impelled by a desire to effect certain reforms in the Church on the model of those he had witnessed abroad, separated the ecclesiastical from the civil courts, and, by the ordinance he issued, authorised the ecclesiastical authorities to utilise the secular power for the enforcement of their sentences. From this time and right up to the Reformation, Church and State were distinct in this country.