The appointment to the scholastic posts within the monastery would naturally be in the hands of the abbot or prior.[301]
There exists evidence that schools for the education of the laity existed in the neighbourhood of most, even if not all, of the greater monasteries. Thus, prior to the thirteenth century, such schools may be traced at Reading, Dunstable, Huntingdon, Bedford, Christchurch (Hants.), Thetford, Derby, Gloucester, Waltham, Bury St. Edmunds, Colchester, Leicester, Cirencester, Lewes, Battle, Arundel, Lancaster, Chesterfield, Bruton, Winchcombe, Malmesbury, and other places in which a monastery is known to have existed. In many of these cases we are able to trace that the appointment of the “magister scolarum” was in the hands of the abbot. Thus the statutes of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds state that:—
“The collation of the schools of St. Edmunds belongs to the abbot in the same way as the collation of Churches.... The schools indeed in the manor of Mildenhall and of Beccles are by law to be conferred by those in whose custody the manors are. And it is to be noted that when the ‘rector scolarum’ is to be removed he ought to be given notice, by the person who appointed him, before Whitsuntide. If, on the other hand, the master wishes to retire, he is bound to give like notice to the person who appointed him.”[302]
A third class of school (which will be described in a subsequent chapter) in connection with the monasteries was the Almonry School. The appointment of the “grammar master” at these schools was usually in the hands of the almoner of the monastery, but the appointment had to be approved of by the Chancellor or Archdeacon who was acting as the head of the educational administration of the diocese.[303]
II. Schools in connection with Collegiate Churches.
More definite information is available when we pass to consider the appointments of masters of the schools in connection with collegiate churches. Here, as we have seen, the chancellor (who was previously the schoolmaster) was the responsible head of the education in the diocese. It was his duty to appoint a master of grammar in connection with the cathedral church, and not to allow any other teacher to keep school within the city without his consent.[304] Sometimes the chancellor seems to have taken no steps to make the appointment, possibly because the remuneration of the master came partly out of the benefice of the chancellor. A letter is still extant which was written to the chancellor of York Cathedral in 1344 informing him that unless he took immediate action in making the appointment of a master, he would be liable to punishment.[305]
The general procedure in making an appointment to the master-ship in grammar of a school, in connection with a collegiate church, was that the chancellor should select the man whom he considered suitable and submit his name to the dean and chapter. The appointment was completed by the dean and chapter admitting the nominee of the chancellor to the position.[306]
We have not been able to trace any appointments of a song schoolmaster.[307] The procedure would probably be similar except for the fact that the nomination would be in the hands of the precentor instead of the chancellor.[308]
In the case of those cathedral churches which were served by monks, there would not, of course, be a “chancellor.” In such cases, the appointment of the “magister scolarum” was made by the bishop. Thus we read of Archbishop Peckham, during a vacancy of the see of Norwich, appointing a master to Norwich School.[309] The first available record of an appointment to the mastership by a bishop of Norwich dates from 1388; after this date the Norwich Chapter Act Book records a continuous stream of such appointments. In Canterbury, which was also a monastic cathedral, the appointment of the schoolmaster was similarly in the hands of the archbishop.[310]
III. Schools in connection with Parishes.