Education in England in the Middle Ages / Thesis Approved for the Degree of Doctor of Science in the University of London

by Albert William Parry

One of the earliest cases of this character, of which records still exist, dates from 1138. Apparently some unlicensed schools had been set up in some parts of London. The schoolmaster of St. Paul’s reported the matter to the Bishop of Winchester (who was acting as Bishop of London during a vacancy in the see). The Bishop consequently issued a writ, in which sentence of excommunication was passed against all those who should continue to keep school in the city of London without the permission of Henry, the schoolmaster.[287] Other cases are recorded in the Beverley Chapter Act Book,[288] one of which may be taken for illustrative purposes. It seems that in 1304 Thomas of Brompton was the recognised master of the school of grammar in connection with the collegiate church at Beverley. An attempt was made by an unauthorised person to set up a school.[289] The schoolmaster reported the offender to the chapter; the chapter determined that if the offence was continued, then the intruding schoolmaster would be, ipso facto, excommunicate and that the chapter clerk was to announce, every Sunday, the fact of such excommunication.

There is no real evidence that there was any ground of appeal against such a sentence of excommunication. Only one instance of an appeal having been made is on record. It seems that a dispute as to the right of keeping school arose at Winchester, and that the party dissatisfied with the verdict carried the case to Rome. It has not been found possible, so far, to trace the result of the appeal.[290]

One of the most important of the cases in which an alleged infringement of monopoly took place, is the “Gloucester School Case,” which has come to be regarded as the leading case on the subject. Briefly, the facts are: the prior of Llanthony, as patron of the schools at Gloucester, had appointed John Hamlyn to the mastership of the school. A priest named Thomas More, who had previously been “scolemaster atte Herford,” set up an unlicensed school at Gloucester. Hamlyn therefore took action against More but, instead of bringing the defendant before a spiritual court, as had previously been customary, he brought the action in the Court of Common Pleas, and the case was tried before the Lord Chief Justice and two other judges.

The considered decision of the court was, that it was not an offence against the Common Law of England to keep a school. If an offence had been committed, it was an offence against ecclesiastical law, and that consequently the remedy was to be found in the ecclesiastical courts.[291]

The significance of this case was that the monopoly of school keeping was partly broken down. Henceforth, anyone who did not fear ecclesiastical censure and excommunication might keep school, if he so desired. The practical effect of the decision was slight since, as we have seen,[292] the monopoly right of keeping school was granted to Eton College thirty years later.

A problem in connection with this question of monopoly arose in Lincoln in 1407-9. There were two recognised schools in Lincoln; the general grammar school attended by the children of the citizens, and to which the choristers formerly went for their instruction in Latin, and the school of the choristers. In course of time, the choristers’ school ceased to confine itself to the study of music and added Latin to its curriculum. For some reason or other, this school also attracted outside scholars. The Mayor and Corporation, as representatives of the citizens of Lincoln, objected;[293] ultimately the matter was settled by a compromise; the teachers of the choristers were to be allowed “to teach grammar to the choristers and to the commoners with them, also to the relations of the canons and vicars of the church or those living at their expense and charity or dwelling in their family,” provided that a nominal acknowledgement of the rights of the master of the City Grammar School was made each term.[294]

Another problem arose out of the competing claims of the master of song and of the master of grammar. The master of song apparently maintained that he was as much an official master as the master of grammar, and probably considered himself quite as competent as his colleague to give lessons in Latin. This problem seems to have been particularly acute at Warwick, and so the authorities of the collegiate church made careful enquiries as to the ancient customs on the matter, and ultimately found that the Latin master alone possessed the right of taking classes in Latin. As a concession, they allowed the master of song to take paying pupils in the “first letters” and the psalter.[295]

The grammar master was not alone in his desire to enforce the monopoly of school keeping in his subject; the master of music was equally tenacious of his prerogative. Thus in 1305, the song master of Lincoln Cathedral complained to the Cathedral Chapter that the Parish Clerks of the city were teaching music to the boys in their churches without his permission, and he charged them with holding “adulterine schools to the prejudice of the liberty of the mother church.” The chapter compelled the offenders to swear, “holding the most Holy Gospels, that they will not henceforward keep any adulterine schools in the churches, nor teach boys song or music without license from the schoolmaster.”[296]

In bringing this chapter to a close, we might quote from the statutes of St. Albans Grammar School, which were confirmed by the Abbot of St. Albans, in 1310, the section which deals with this question of monopoly. It is there stated that “the master for the time being shall annul, suppress, destroy, and eradicate all adulterine schools within our territory or jurisdiction, by inhibiting ... under pain of excommunication, any persons from resorting to or presuming to keep any schools without the will and assent of the master of our Grammar School within our aforesaid jurisdiction.”[297]

Though the privilege of school keeping was highly prized and stoutly defended, yet it has now passed into oblivion. This was effected, not by express decree either of law court or of state, but simply because the instruction in Latin, which was offered by these schools, ceased to be in demand. Two forces contributed to produce this result, the Reformation, and the increasing use of the vernacular. The Reformation brought to an end the number of appointments in connection with the Church for which a knowledge of Latin was a necessary qualification; and consequently the demand for grammar schools diminished. The increasing employment of the vernacular caused Latin to drop out of use as the language of commerce and the medium of written communication.