[Illustration: PLATE 6. EDUCATIONAL LEADERS IN PROTESTANT GERMANY (From a painting dated 1543, by Lucas Cranach, a German contemporary of both men, and now in the Uffizi Gallery, at Florence)
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546)
Professor of Theology at Wittenberg
PHILIPP MELANCHTHON (1497-1560)
Professor of Greek at Wittenberg]
In the commercial cities of the North, however, though often only after quite a struggle with the local church authorities, which throughout the Middle Ages had maintained a monopoly of all instruction as a protection to orthodoxy, different types of elementary vernacular schools had been developed to meet local commercial needs, such as writing-schools to train writers, [2] and reckoning-schools to train young men to handle accounts. [3] Reading, manners, and religion were also taught in these schools. Other city schools, largely Latin in type, but containing some vernacular instruction to meet local business needs not met by the cathedral or parish schools of the city, were also developed. Up to the time of the Protestant Revolts, however, there was almost no instruction in the vernacular outside of the commercial cities, nor was there any particular demand for such instruction elsewhere. If one wished to be a scholar, a statesman, a diplomat, a teacher, a churchman, or to join a religious brotherhood, he needed to study the learned language of the time,—Latin. With this he could be at home with people of his kind anywhere in western Europe. The vernacular he could leave to tradesmen, craftsmen, soldiers, laborers, and the servant classes.
[Illustration: FIG. 92. TWO EARLY VERNACULAR SCHOOLS
GERMAN (From a woodcut, printed at Nuremberg, 1505)
FRENCH (After a drawing by Soquand, 1528)]
These people, on the other hand, had practically no need for a written language, aside from a very small amount for business needs. Even here the sign of the cross would do. There were but few books written in the vernacular tongues, and these had to be copied by hand and, in consequence, were scarce and expensive. There were no newspapers (first newspaper, Venice, 1563) or magazines. Spectacles for reading were not known until the end of the thirteenth century, and were not common for two centuries after that. There was little knowledge that could not pass from mouth to mouth. Such little vernacular literature as did exist was transmitted orally, and no great issue which appealed to the imagination of the masses had as yet come to the front to create any strong desire for the ability to read. As a result, the education of the masses was in hand labor, the trades, and religion, and not in books, and the need for book education was scarcely felt.
A NEW DEMAND FOR VERNACULAR SCHOOLS. The invention of printing and the Protestant Revolts were in a sense two revolutionary forces, which in combination soon produced vast and far-reaching changes. The discovery of the process of making paper and the invention of the printing press changed the whole situation as to books. These could now be reproduced rapidly and in large numbers, and could be sold at but a small fraction of their former cost. The printing of the Bible in the common tongue did far more to stimulate a desire to be able to read than did the Revival of Learning (Rs. 155, 170). Then came the religious discussions of the Reformation period, which stirred intellectually the masses of the people in northern lands as nothing before in history had ever done. In an effort to reach the people the reformers originated small and cheap pamphlets, written in the vernacular, and these, sold for a penny or two, were peddled in the market-places and from house to house. While there had been imperfect translations of the Bible in German before Luther's, his translation (New Testament, 1522) was direct from the original Greek and so carefully done that it virtually fixed the character of the German language. [4] Calvin's Institutes of Christianity (French edition, 1541) in a similar manner fixed the character of the French language, [5] and Tyndale's translation of the New Testament (1526) was into such simple and homely language [6] that it fixed the character of the English tongue, and was made the basis for the later Authorized translation.
[Illustration: FIG. 93. THE FIRST PAGE OF WYCLIFFE'S BIBLE
Translated between 1382 and 1384. Facsimile of the first verses of
Genesis]
The leaders of the Protestant Revolts, too, in asserting that each person should be able to read and study the Scriptures as a means to personal salvation, created an entirely new demand, in Protestant lands, for elementary schools in the vernacular. Heretofore the demand had been for schools only for those who expected to become scholars or leaders in Church or State, while the masses of the people had little or no interest in learning. Now a new class became desirous of learning to read, not Latin, but the language which they had already learned to speak. Wycliffe, Huss, Zwingli, Luther, Calvin, and Knox alike insisted on the importance of the study of the Bible as a primary necessity in the religious life. In an effort to bring the Bible within reach of the people Wycliffe's followers had attempted the laborious and impossible task of multiplying by hand (p. 290) copies of his translation. Zwingli had written a pamphlet on The Manner of Instruction and Bringing up Boys in a Christian Way (1524), in which he urged the importance of religious education. Luther, besides translating the Bible, had prepared two general Catechisms, one for adults and one for children, had written hymns [7] and issued numerous letters and sermons in behalf of religious education. All these were printed in the vernacular and scattered broadcast. Luther thought that "every human being, by the time he has reached his tenth year, should be familiar with the Holy Gospels, in which the very core and marrow of his life is bound." In his sermons and addresses he urged a study of the Bible and the duty of sending children to school. Calvin's Catechism similarly was extensively used in Protestant lands.
1. Lutheran School Organization