I. Schools in connection with Monasteries.
As a general principle, it may be assumed that a school existed in connection with every large monastery. The connection consisted in the fact that these schools were maintained by the monasteries, and that the master was appointed by the monastic authorities. These schools fall into one or other of two classes: they were either founded by the monasteries, or they were handed over to the monasteries, which acted as trustees for their maintenance, by their real founders. It is not easy in every case to determine whether the school was the property of the monastery or was merely held on trust by them. The commissioners, entrusted with the task of securing the dissolution of all the monasteries, did not attempt to do so. The property held by the monastery was confiscated, regardless of whether the property was held on trust for other purposes, or was indisputably the possession of the monastery. Among the earliest of the schools which we know of, as being connected with monasteries are St. Albans, c. 1100;[502] Christ Church, Hants, c. 1100;[503] Thetford, c. 1114;[504] Huntingdon, c. 1127;[505] Dunstable, c. 1131;[506] Reading, c. 1135;[507] Gloucester, c. 1137;[508] Derby, c. 1150;[509] and Bedford, c. 1160.[510] We know that Bourne School was in connection with the monastery, because the Abbot of Bourne possessed the patronage of the school.[511] For a similar reason, it can be shown that the school at Bury St. Edmunds was monastic.[512]
Passing next to give instances of the schools which were held by monasteries as trustees, we may mention Lewes Grammar School, which was founded in 1512 by the will of Agnes Morley, who provided that the appointment of the schoolmaster should be vested in the prior of Lewes.[513] We note, too, that Peter of Blockesley gave possessions to the prior and convent of Coventry in trust for the school.[514] The school at Bruton may also be quoted as illustrative. By an endowment deed of 1519,[515] various possessions were given to the Abbot of Bruton, subject to the condition that he should provide a schoolhouse and house for the master, and also pay him £10 a year. The returns to the chantry commissioners from Bruton[516] state that, after the dissolution, the schoolmaster was no longer called upon to work, but as he had had a pension assigned him, he was able “to lyve licentiously at will than to travaile in good education of yewthe” “to the greate Decaye as well of vertuous bringing uppe of yewthe of the saide shire in all good lernyng, as also of the inhabitants of the Kinges said town of Brewton.”
II. Almonry Schools.
An essential duty discharged by the inmates of a monastery was the offering of divine worship. Effectively to discharge this duty, the voices of boys were required in addition to those of the men. It is difficult to determine when this custom originated; probably it was adopted first of all in the collegiate churches, and then subsequently imitated by the monasteries. The earliest available reference to an almonry school in this country is in connection with St. Paul’s Cathedral. A statute which dates c. 1190 refers to the boys of the almonry, and informs us that they lived on alms.[517] Lincoln, York, and Salisbury are three other secular cathedrals, at which choristers, who were boarded and lodged together, were maintained.
The boys, who acted as choristers in the monasteries, were lodged at the outer gate; they were clothed, fed, and educated at the expense of the monks. The earliest reference available to almonry boys in monasteries dates from 1320, when it was provided that “no scholar shall be taken into the almonry unless he can read, and sing in the chapel, and is ten years old.”[518] The earliest statutes which set forth the work of the almonry are those of St. Albans, and date from 1339. They include the following regulations.
(1) “Let the boys be admitted to live there for a term of five years at the most, to whom this period suffices for becoming proficient in grammar.
(2) No poor scholar shall absent himself from the Almonry without the licence of the sub-Almoner, under the penalty of expulsion until reconciliation.
(3) Whosoever is convicted or notorious for being incontinent, a night walker, noisy, disorderly, shall be wholly expelled.
(4) Immediately on admission, the scholars shall shave an ample tonsure, after the manner of choristers, and shall cut their hair as becomes clerks.