A student's history of education

by Frank Pierrepont Graves

This he felt could be accomplished largely through a grammatical and literary study of the Greek and Roman writers. The pupils learned from the first to converse Course and methods. in Latin, and there were games with letters for the youngest and simple exercises to train them in clear articulation and proper accent and emphasis. Before they were ten, they were also drilled in memorizing and reciting with intelligence the easier portions of the classic authors. This elocutionary work, which was increased in length and difficulty as the boys grew older, gave them an excellent grasp of vocabulary, rhythm, and style. As Classics and mathematical subjects. they advanced, the pupils read a variety of Latin writers, and soon took up a study of the Greek authors and of the Church Fathers. The mathematical subjects were also taught with an enlarged scope, especially in their applications to drawing, mensuration, and surveying. Because of the lack of books, the teaching was carried on largely by dictation. Vittorino, however, carefully studied the ability, interests, and future career of his pupils, and selected the subjects and methods best suited to each intelligence. He thus inaugurated a Physical and moral and religious training. thoroughly elastic course for the school. Physical and moral education were likewise insisted upon quite as fully as intellectual. Vittorino introduced especially fencing, wrestling, dancing, ball-playing, running, and leaping, in all of which he was himself an expert, but the purpose of these was to aid and stimulate the mental powers. He also by both precept and example inculcated piety, reverence, and religious observances. He believed, moreover, that truth and moral beauty could be derived not only from the Christian authors, but also, by means of expurgation, from the classic writings.

The Relation of the Court Schools to the Universities.—The court school at Mantua had thus a most potent influence upon the educational practice of the times, and trained a large number of distinguished ecclesiastics, statesmen, scholars, and rulers. It doubtless was broadly typical of the court schools and of the humanistic education of Italy in general. These court schools, while taking pupils very early, often retained them until they were twenty-one, and covered as much, if not more, ground than the arts course of the university. Rivalry and adoption of the new learning by the universities. They were, in a way, competitors of the older institutions. A student might, for the sake of a degree, go from a court school to a university, but, as a rule, if what he wished were a general course, he would be satisfied with the greater prestige that came from being a pupil of one of the distinguished humanists that the court schools were generally able to retain at their head. In fact, the want of hospitality, if not actual hostility, of universities to the new learning, often stimulated the growth of court schools. In many instances where the university was especially conservative, a court school was set up by its side as a professed rival. Gradually, however, the humanistic training crept into all the universities of Italy, and the classical literature of the Greeks and Romans largely took the place of the former grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. Before the close of the fifteenth century, Florence, Padua, Pavia, Milan, Ferrara, Rome, and other cities had admitted the humanities to their universities, and the other university seats were not long in following their example.

Decadence of Italian Humanism.—Toward the close of the fifteenth century, however, this liberal education Humanism eventually became formalized and largely a drill in grammar. of the humanists in Italy began to be fixed and formal. Until the middle of the century the ideals, content, and meaning of this training were constantly expanding, but after that there was a gradual narrowing and hardening, and during the early years of the sixteenth century the degeneration became complete. As the subject-matter became institutionalized, the literature of the Greeks and Romans failed more and more to be interpreted in terms of life. Emphasis was placed upon the form rather than the content of the classical writings, and grammatical drill was more and more emphasized as a means of formal discipline. Before long the course was limited largely to Cicero, and the new learning fell ‘Ciceronianism.’ into that decadent state known as ‘Ciceronianism.’ It consisted simply in an attempt to teach a perfect style with Cicero as a model, and to give one a conversational knowledge of Ciceronian Latin. The structure, metaphors, and vocabulary of all Latin writing had to be copied from the phrases of Cicero, and the literature of the day became little more than a sequence of model passages from that author.

The Spread and Character of Humanism in the Northern Countries.—Such was the effect of the Renaissance upon education in the country of its birth. But the Through the invention of printing humanism leaped the Alps. humanistic training could not be confined to Italy. By the middle of the fifteenth century, with the invention of printing, the texts of the classic authors were rapidly multiplied and spread everywhere. The Renaissance and the classic literature leaped the Alps, and made their way into France, the Teutonic countries, England, and elsewhere. At first, humanistic scholars wandered into the North, soon others were invited in large numbers by patrons of learning, and, at length, students from the Northern countries thronged into Italy for instruction. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the humanists outside the peninsula became very numerous, and during the sixteenth century the movement came to its height in the Northern lands.

But the character and effects of the Renaissance and humanism in the North differed greatly from those in the country of their origin. The peoples of the North, especially those of Germanic stock, were by nature more religious than the brilliant and mercurial Italians. With them the Renaissance led less to a desire for personal Less individual and more social in the North. development, self-realization, and individual achievement, and took on more of a social and moral color. The prime purpose of humanism became the improvement of society, morally and religiously, and the classical revival pointed the way to obtaining a new Use of Greek and Hebrew. and more exalted meaning from the Scriptures. Through the revival of Greek, Northern scholars, especially the German and English, sought to get away from the ecclesiastical doctrines and traditions, and turn back to the essence of Christianity by studying the New Testament in the original. This suggested a similar insight into the Old Testament, and an interest in Hebrew was thereby aroused. In consequence, to most people in the North a renewed study of the Bible became as important a feature of humanism as an appreciation of the classics.

The Development of Humanism in France.—In France humanism appeared early. In 1458 a professorship of Greek was established at the University of Paris, but the humanistic movement did not amount to much Expeditions of French kings into Italy. in France until it was stimulated by the expeditions of Charles VIII (1494) and Louis XII (1498) into Italy. These undertakings of the monarchs did not attain the military and political objects intended, but through them France came into direct contact with humanism at its sources, and a definite impression was made upon French art, literature, and education. Even then, owing to the conservatism of the university, the new learning met at first with formidable opposition. Happily, it Francis I, found an influential patron in the youthful Francis I (r. 1515-1547).

French Humanistic Educators and Institutions.—Under the protection of Francis, many prominent and Budæus. humanistic scholars and educators, like Budæus (1468-1540), appeared, classical manuscripts were collected, Greek and Latin authors were translated, treatises on humanistic education were produced, and the College of France, with chairs of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, was established (1530). Humanism was also introduced into various colleges in Paris and Bordeaux by such scholars Corderius, and Ramus. and practical teachers as Corderius (1479-1564) and Ramus (1515-1572), and many text-books and editions of the classics were published. Soon most of the schools of France responded to the new training. It would hardly be possible to consider many of them, but a brief description of the course and administration in vogue at College of Guyenne. the College of Guyenne, taken from an account of one of its teachers, may prove illuminating. This college contained ten classes in secondary work, and two years more in philosophy, which partially overlapped the faculty of arts in the university. Latin and religion were taught throughout the secondary school, and Greek, mathematics, rhetoric, and declamation could be taken in the last three or four classes. The pupils were introduced to the rudiments of Latin through the vernacular, and developmental methods and enlivening disputations were used. Probably the general conditions here were typical of the French humanistic schools everywhere during the sixteenth century.

Humanism in the German Universities.—Before humanism was well established in France, however, it had also spread through the Teutonic countries. By the end Erfurt and other existing universities. of the sixteenth century the German universities had begun to adopt the new learning. In 1494 Erfurt established a professorship of Poetry and Eloquence, which covered the field of classic literature, and lectures on humanistic subjects were before long given in Leipzig, Heidelberg, Tübingen, Ingoldstadt, and Vienna. Likewise, New universities. a number of new universities, Wittenberg, Marburg, Königsberg, and Jena, were started upon a humanistic basis, and before the middle of the sixteenth century humanism prevailed in practically all of the German universities.

The Hieronymians and Their Schools.—The earliest factor in Germanic humanism, however, appeared in the education furnished by the Hieronymians, or Brethren of At first instruction only in Bible and vernacular, the Common Lot. For the instruction of the poor, this order had started schools, or established teachers in institutions already existing, throughout the Netherlands, Germany, and France. At first, they stressed instruction in the Bible and the vernacular, but, as the Italian influence began to be felt in the upper countries, but humanism added. they broadened the course by the addition of classic literature and Hebrew, and the schools soon became recognized centers of humanism and intellectual interests. The pupils that were trained there strengthened the new learning as teachers in the universities and schools throughout Germany and the Netherlands. The first educator of importance to introduce humanism into the Wessel, Agricola, Reuchlin, Hieronymian training seems to have been Wessel (1420-1489). He was preëminently interested in teaching, and among his earliest pupils of distinction were Agricola (1443-1485), who had a most potent influence in introducing and classics, and Reuchlin (1455-1522), who taught the classics and Hebrew at various universities, and produced a monumental grammar and lexicon upon the latter subject. An even more noteworthy teacher was Wimpfeling. Wimpfeling (1450-1528), who became professor, dean, and rector at Heidelberg. He lectured upon the classical authors and the Church Fathers, and wrote a number of treatises upon education, in which he held to the attitude of Northern humanism that all learning is vain which does not lead to the advancement of mankind. But, while a true reformer, he never broke from the Church.

Erasmus, Leader in the Humanistic Education of Attitude of Erasmus. the North.—A similar attitude was held by Erasmus (1467-1531), the greatest of the humanists trained by the Hieronymians. While he was bitterly opposed to the corruption and obscurantism of ecclesiastics, he believed that the remedy lay, not in a division of the Church, but in the study of the classics and the Church Fathers, and His text-books, in the general removal of ignorance. Accordingly, to advance education, he assisted in the preparation of Lily’s Latin grammar, translated into Latin the Greek grammar of Theodore of Gaza, and wrote a work on Latin composition, called De Copia Verborum et Rerum, and an elementary text-book of Latin conversation on topics of the day, known as Colloquies. Similarly, he produced treatises on the New Testament, and popularized the Gospels and Church Fathers through satires, paraphrases. Even better known are the satires that he wrote in Latin to reform the abuses and foibles of his times. His Adages and Praise of Folly mercilessly scored the absurdities and vices of the Church and the priesthood, and in his Dialogue on Ciceronianism he ridiculed some of the narrower tendencies into which humanism had fallen. He also made direct contributions to educational and educational treatises. theory in his Latin treatises on The Liberal Education of Children, The Right Method of Study, and Courteous Manners in Boys, which are almost modern in some of their recommendations. Learning, morality, religion, and good manners, he held, must be trained together, and education must be open to everyone, according to his or her ability. It should be started in infancy by the mothers, and reading, writing, drawing, and some knowledge of familiar animals and objects taught by informal methods. At seven the boy is to be given a thorough training in the Scriptures, Church Fathers, and the classics, and the content rather than the language and form of these works is to be stressed.