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

CHAPTER IX.

THE PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.

In reviewing the educational progress which our country has made during the later Middle Ages, our starting point must be the consideration of the ideals which at various times dominated education, and created a supply of, and a demand for, facilities for education.

The ideal behind the schools first established in this country was essentially religious. The early missionaries clearly realised that the Christian religion could not exist side by side with ignorance. It was necessary that provision should be made to enable converts effectively to participate in the divine service offered by the church; it was imperative that Latin should be taught to those who wished properly to understand the teaching of the church and to those who were desirous of being admitted to office in the church. Latin was the native language of the Christian missionaries; the services of the church were conducted in that tongue; and medieval ecclesiastical literature was written in the Latin language. More than this, Latin was the universal language of the civilised world of the time and, it must be remembered, there was no standard language in this country which could act as a substitute. It was in response to this ideal of the Church, the ideal which required that facilities for religious education should be within the reach of all, that the Church set herself to see that in every parish, in every town, in every city, a school should be found.

The progress of the Christian religion entailed a progress in morality. Progress in morality necessarily involved progress in civilisation. With the growth of civilisation, there developed gradually an interest in the things of the mind as well as the things of the body. Thus it came about that education began to possess a value for its own sake, apart from its service in connection with religious progress.

But the ideal of education, as necessary for moral perfection, never ceased to be the ideal behind the establishment of church schools. From the earliest date three things have been considered necessary for religious education: there must be a training in habits of worship and devotion, the mind must be stored with adequate and systematised knowledge of the doctrine of the Church to serve as a guide to conduct, and there must be held before the mind of the pupil the ideal character of Christ, human and divine.

Hence we note that the curriculum of the schools evolved in response to this ideal. It consisted, as we have seen, of song and grammar: song, because of its value in the training of habits of worship and devotion; grammar, because it put the scholar in possession of the key to unlock the store of knowledge which the Church possessed.

Gradually another ideal came into existence. People began to realise that these church schools were useful for “bread and butter” purposes. Just as the ideal which we have first outlined and which created the supply of schools was the highest possible, so the motive which exercised an important influence upon the demand for schools was the lowest possible. Yet, it must be confessed that the “bread and butter” motive proved to be a most powerful one in stimulating the demand for schools. Throughout the history of the human race self-interest has always been a powerful stimulant to action. Under normal circumstances and in the great majority of cases, as soon as a man freely realises that a certain course will be of service to him, he proceeds to take the necessary action.

These two ideals were in operation, side by side, during the period from the eleventh century to the close of the Middle Ages. The authorities of the church, believing in the value of education as an agency for the elevation of the human character sought to provide schools; the principle of self-interest, in many cases, led children to attend these schools.

Towards the latter part of the period we are now concerned with, a new ideal and a new agency gradually manifested itself. The new ideal arose out of the perception of the value of education. Education began to be conceived of as a preparation for a life in this world as well as a life in eternity; now “learning and manners” begin to be combined just as previously “religion and letters” were linked together. Thus we read that the school at Wisbech was founded that children might be instructed in “godly and vertuos lerninge,”[740] and the school at Tewkesbury “for the bringynge up of the saide youths in knowlege of vertue and good learninge.”[741]