With this realisation of a social ideal for education, schools began to be provided by civic societies and by merchants who had gained a fortune for themselves. The social ideal arose out of the value of religious education, hence the curriculum was not affected. There was a change in the agency through which the school was provided, there was a change in the mode of governing the schools, there was a change in the relationship of the teacher to the church, but there was no change in the curriculum. Inspired originally by a religious ideal, it was now known to serve a social purpose.
Among the early merchant founders of schools may be mentioned William Sevenoaks, a grocer of London, who founded Sevenoaks Grammar School in 1432, Edmund Flower, citizen and merchant tailor of London, the founder of Cuckfield Grammar School in 1521, Richard Collyer, mercer, who founded Horsham School, Sussex, in 1532, and William Dyer, mercer, who founded a school at Houghton Regis in 1515.
Bearing these general principles in mind, we find that the main events connected with the progress of education during the later Middle Ages may conveniently be considered under three headings.
1. Circumstances which influenced the demand for schools.
2. Lollardism and Education.
3. Educational Legislation.
(1) The circumstances which influenced the demand for schools arose out of the existing social conditions. The Church, as a profession, offered considerable attraction to the able but penniless youth. Many of the outstanding churchmen of the Middle Ages were men who had come from a comparatively lowly origin. Thus William of Wykeham was the son of a yeoman whose ancestors for generations had “ploughed the same lands, knelt at the same altar, and paid due customs and service to the lord of the manor.” Henry Chicheley, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, famous as the founder of All Soul’s College, was also the son of a yeoman. William Waynflete, afterwards Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, was of lowly origin and at one time occupied the comparatively humble position of grammar master at Eton College at a salary of £10 a year.
But apart from the great prizes of the church available to those of outstanding ability, there were also a large number of openings possible to the man who had availed himself of the educational facilities offered by the church schools and had there mastered the elements of grammar. He might proceed from the parochial church schools to the school of a collegiate church, and possibly he might make his way to the university and ultimately obtain ordination to the priesthood.
The financial advantages of the education offered by the church became obvious after the Norman Conquest, and arose out of an undesigned circumstance. Prior to the Conquest, the parishes of this country were under the spiritual care of Saxon rectors who were generally well-born and whose position was well-endowed. The Norman Conquest ultimately resulted in these men being deprived of their cures and being replaced by ill-paid vicars or parochial chaplains. The chief factors which brought about this condition of things were impropriations, papal provisors, pluralities, and the custom, which gradually grew up, of appointing to livings men who had only been admitted to minor orders in the church.
The practice of impropriation was an indirect result of the revival of the monastic principle. The custom of endowing a newly founded monastery with the patronage of existing churches gradually came into being. When a vacancy occurred, the monastery as patrons of the benefice bestowed it upon themselves as a corporation, and drew the stipend attached to it, appointing a “vicar” to perform the requisite spiritual duties, and allowing the vicar only a comparatively insignificant share of the temporalities of the benefice. The position of the incumbent was consequently considerably degraded both in dignity and in emolument.