The first full curriculum of a school which we have been able to trace, is that which was drawn up for the use of the school which was founded in 1526 at Childrey, in Berkshire, by Sir William Fettiplace. The priest to be appointed to the school was required to be well instructed in grammar. The children in the school were to be taught, first, the alphabet, and then in Latin, the Lord’s Prayer, the “Hail Mary,” the Apostles’ Creed, all things necessary for serving at Mass, the De Profoundis, collects for the departed, and grace for dinner and supper; and in English, the Fourteen Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the seven deadly sins, the seven sacraments, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven works of mercy, the manner of confession, good manners and good conduct. In addition, if any of those who attended the school were capable of profiting by further instruction, the master was required to instruct them in grammar.[732]
III. Eton.
We also possess a full account of the curriculum adopted at the school founded by the will of Edmund Flower, a “citizein and marchaunt tailor of London.”[733] Previous to his death, Flower had “for certeine years past at his cost and charge caused a fre Gramer Scole to be maintained and kept at Cukfelde.” This school was further endowed by William Spicer, the incumbent of Balcombe in 1528, who required that the schoolmaster should “teach the said school grammar after the form order and usage used and taught in the grammar school at Eton near Windsor from form to form.” For this purpose, a copy of the Eton time table was obtained. This original has, unfortunately, been lost, but a copy, which dates from the Stuart period, is still preserved in a book in the possession of the Vicar of Cuckfield.[734] The Eton time table of this period was also sent to Saffron Walden School, and, together with the time table of Winchester, was incorporated in the Saffron Walden School statutes.[735]
The statutes show that the Latin grammar in use was that by Stanbridge, so far as the lower forms were concerned, and that by Whittington in the higher forms. John Stanbridge, who was made master of Banbury Hospital School in 1501, wrote several Latin Grammars. The teaching of grammar “after the manner of Banbury” was subsequently prescribed at a number of grammar schools, e.g. Manchester, Cuckfield, and Merchant Taylors.[736] Whittington was the master of the school at Lichfield, in connection with St. John’s Hospital in that city; he brought out an improved version of the grammar of Stanbridge.[737]
The Latin authors mentioned in these statutes include Terence, Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Horace, Ovid, Virgil, thus showing that the influence of the Renaissance was beginning to be felt. Here, however, we touch upon a topic which must be reserved for future consideration. It is possible to read too much into this list of authors, as Colet, in his statute of 1518, when dealing with the choice of authors to be studied at St. Paul’s School, mentions Lactantius, Prudentius, Proba, Sedulius, Juvencus, and Baptista Mantuanus, even though he expressly stated that he wished to select only “good auctors suych as have the veray Romayne eloquence joyned with wisdome.”
We may, therefore, summarise the school curriculum of the Middle Ages as consisting mainly of grammar, meaning by the term the study of the reading of ecclesiastical Latin, and the acquisition of the power to speak Latin. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Logic was also studied and, for a time, was the supreme study. Gradually the study of Logic returned to a subsidiary position, due, partly, to the fact that new studies were slowly finding their way into the curriculum owing to the humanistic influences which began to manifest themselves in Italy in the fourteenth century; and partly to the fact that the barren nature of the study of Logic was being realised by men of thought.
A new subject began to win a place in the school curriculum towards the close of the fifteenth century—the study of the Scrivener’s art, or the art of writing. We have already dealt with this subject in previous chapters.[738] Here it may suffice to set forth the reason which Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, gave for introducing the subject into his Foundation of Rotherham College in 1483:—[739]
“Tercio que, quia multos luce et ingenii acumine preditos juvenes profert terra illa, neque omnes volunt sacerdotii dignitatem et altitudinem attingere, ut tales ad artes mechanicas et alia mundi Concernia magis habilitentur, ordinavimus tercium socium, in arte scribendi et computandi scientem et peritum.”