It is also important to remember that a school of song was also established in connection with the various churches, as well as a school of grammar. There does not appear to be any express decree to this effect, but there is abundant evidence of the common existence of such schools, e.g. at London,[242] York,[243] Lincoln,[244] Beverley,[245] and Warwick.[246] The master of song was not licensed by the Chancellor, but by the Precentor, the official of the Cathedral body who was in charge of the musical part of the services.[247]
Up to this point we have considered mainly the provision for education made by the collegiate churches where it would be possible for a definite person to take charge of the teaching of grammar. But schools were not limited to these churches. On the contrary, the priest in charge of practically every parish church would be expected to keep school. This was a part of the traditional custom of the Church, a custom that was enforced, as we have seen by the Council of Vaison,[248] the canons of Theodulf,[249] and the so-called canons of King Edgar.[250]
Passing to the period with which we are more immediately concerned in this chapter, we find the requirement that parish priests should keep school reiterated by Canon Law “ut quisque Presbyter, qui plebem regit, clericum habeat, qui secum cantet, et epistolam et lectionem legat, et qui possit scholas tenere, et admonere suos parachianos, ut filios suos ad fidem discendam mittant ad Ecclesiam: quos ipse cum omni castitate erudiat.”[251] The Council of Westminster, held in 1200, also decreed that:—
“Priests shall keep schools in their towns and teach little boys freely.”
“Priests ought always to have a school of schoolmasters in their houses and if any devout person wishes to entrust little ones to him for instruction, they ought to receive them willingly and teach them kindly.”[252]
The teaching of the Church on the matter was consequently clear and explicit. The question next arises, to what extent did the parish priests in this country comply with the regulations of the Church. Rashdall is of the opinion that “it may be stated with some confidence that at least in the later Middle Ages the smallest towns, and even the larger villages possessed schools where a boy might learn to read and acquire the first rudiments of ecclesiastical Latin.”[253] The available evidence to support the contention that it was customary for the parish priests of the Middle Ages to keep school is admittedly slight, but it establishes clearly that it was regarded as a common practice for schools to be held in the various parishes. Thus, we learn in Philobiblon of “rectores scholarum ruralium puerorumque rudium paedagogos.”[254] Roger Bacon[255] tells us that schools existed everywhere “in every city, castle and burg.”[256] Abbot Samson in speaking of the days of his boyhood at Diss in Norfolk says that he attended a school which was held there,[257] and John of Salisbury narrates that when he was a boy he went in company with other boys to a priest “ut psalmos addiscerem.”[258] Then, again, an interesting passage, which supports our contention, occurs in the correspondence (usually assigned to a date between 1119 and 1135) which took place between Theobald of Etampes and an anonymous critic. The writer of this passage is supposed to be attacking a statement that there was a scarcity of secular clerks. He urges: “Are there not everywhere on earth masters of the liberal arts, who also are called clerks? You yourself, a nobody, are you not said to have taught as a master sixty or one hundred clerks, more or less? Have you not been a greedy seller of words to them, and perhaps have wickedly deceived them in their ignorance as you have deceived yourself? Where then, I pray, is this want of clerks of yours? For not to mention other parts of the empire, are there not nearly as many skilled schoolmasters in ... England, not only in boroughs and cities, but even in country towns, as there are tax collectors and magistrates?”[259]
One other important question still remains to be considered: when were definite school houses first erected? We have used the term “school” to describe the classes which were held in connection with the churches, but, as we have pointed out, these were for the most part merely classes in which a priest or a youthful clerk taught boys their “Donat.” These schools were usually held in some part of the church building. Shakespeare refers to this:—
“Like a pedant that
Keeps a school i’ the Church.”
Twelfth Night.
Similarly, in the Memorials of Southwell Minster it is recorded on the occasion of one of the visitations, that one of the clerks complained that the boys who were being taught made so much noise as to disturb the services which were in progress.[260] It is not until a school possesses a definite building of its own that it can be said to possess a real independent existence. This question is also of interest in connection with the conflicting claims to the title of being the “oldest public school in England” which have been set up. If we content ourselves with the definition of a school as “a class held in a church for the purpose of teaching Latin,” then the question of the relative antiquity of schools is that of the relative antiquity of churches, a question of comparatively little interest from the point of view of the history of education. We contend that we are on much firmer ground when we ask, when was the first building for specific school purposes erected in England. This is a question which still awaits investigation and can only be solved by one school establishing evidence to maintain the date of its first building and then waiting until its claim is overthrown by a school which can show a still more ancient origin. So far as we have been able to trace, the earliest record of a separate school building dates from about 1150 when Abbot Samson bought a stone house at Bury St. Edmunds and gave it for a schoolhouse.[261] We note also that about the same date, Wakelin of Derby and his wife Goda gave certain buildings in Derby “on this trust that the hall shall be for a school of clerks and the chambers shall be to house the master and clerks.”[262] It is highly improbable that these are really the first instances.
Choristers’ Schools.