Archbishop Sharpe was requested by some of the Clergy to prevent Frankland from proceeding in his labours. He consulted Tillotson as to the best method of procedure, and received from him this reply: “His instructing young men in so public a manner in University learning is contrary to his oath to do, if he hath taken a degree in either of our Universities, and I doubt, contrary to the Bishop’s oath to grant him a licence for doing it; so that your Grace does not, in this matter, consider him at all as a Dissenter. This I only offer to your Grace as what seems to me the fairest and softest way of ridding your hands of this business.” To explain this advice, it is proper to remark, that in the Middle Ages, factions arose at Oxford and Cambridge, and hosts of students, under some favourite professors, would march off to Northampton or Stamford to set up rival schools and grant degrees. Hence an oath came to be required of the University graduates, that in no other places than in the favoured retreats on the Isis and the Cam would they ever establish a scholastic lecture. It was in harmony with Tillotson’s characteristic wariness to give such counsel, but it is hardly worthy of his reputation for gentleness and Catholicity to put the disconcerted Prelate up to the trick of masking the batteries of intolerance under the specious cover of obsolete precedents.
It should be added, that Archbishop Sharpe behaved very courteously to Frankland throughout this unpleasant business;[505] and also that other Dissenting tutors in different ways were hindered by the opposition of Churchmen.
NONCONFORMISTS.
Two other academies sprung out of Richard Frankland’s—one at Attercliffe under the superintendence of Timothy Jollie, another at Manchester under the care of John Chorlton. In the old town of Shrewsbury, Francis Tallents established a seminary about the time of the Revolution. At Taunton, Matthew Warren educated several young gentlemen for the pastorate and for secular occupations. So did Samuel Birch at an earlier period in Shilton. Joshua Oldfield also kept a school at Coventry. John Woodhouse, of Sheriff Hales, Shropshire; George Burden, of Somersetshire; Edmund Thorpe, of Sussex; Joseph Bennet, of the same county; and Josiah Bassett, of Warwickshire, may be added to the list of Nonconformist schoolmasters at different dates, between the ejectment and the end of the century.
The Metropolis drew towards it several learned men in this capacity, and Newington Green became “the favourite seat of the Dissenting Muses.” There the learned Theophilus Gale, and the less known but erudite and able Charles Morton, educated a number of young men. Edward Veal had a school at Stepney, and Samuel Wesley, after having been a pupil of Veal’s, became a student under Morton. Violent opposition to the Established Church is said to have been fostered under Veal’s roof, and this young man, who possessed a lively poetical talent, answered invectives against Dissent by invectives against the Church, until, from some cause which has been differently explained, he abandoned Nonconformity, and one August morning in 1683, with forty-five shillings in his pocket, walked all the way to Oxford, and entered himself as a servitor of Exeter College. Samuel Wesley, in a letter published in the year 1703, reflected upon the Dissenting academies, and afterwards defended what he said in a reply to Mr. Palmer. Much bitterness appeared in Wesley’s pamphlet, and he was accused of ingratitude for assailing institutions, to one of which he had been indebted for a gratuitous education. Palmer vindicated the academies from the charge brought against them; but, by a curious coincidence, he like Wesley gave up all connection with Dissent, and obtained the living of Maldon, in Essex.
1688–1702.
Thomas Doolittle, of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and Thomas Vincent, of Christ Church, Oxford, united in conducting, until within a short time before his death in 1708, an academy at Islington. Thither Philip Henry sent his son Matthew, and immediately after his arrival the young man wrote to his sisters, informing them that in his tutor’s meeting-house “there are several galleries. It is all pewed, and a brave pulpit a great height above the people,” adding, in the same letter: “I perceive that Mr. Doolittle is very studious and diligent, and that Mrs. Doolittle and her daughter are very fine and gallant.” During Matthew Henry’s stay at Islington he pursued a course of reading which bore upon the Christian ministry, but when he left that place he studied law for a time at Gray’s Inn, although it does not appear that he ever thought of entering the legal profession. The fact is, that the elder educated Nonconformists of that day valued all kinds of learning, and were anxious that their children, especially if designed for the ministry, should traverse the widest curriculum of study. Further, it may be mentioned that Ralph Button, fellow and tutor of Merton, Oxford, who died in 1680, conducted another academy at Islington.
Dissenting academies could not resemble national Universities. A variety of professors, extensive libraries, aristocratic society were beyond their reach, and polite literature and the graces of composition were but little cultivated. Too much time was given to the study of dead languages—a mistake, indeed, shared by the Universities. A keen observer, Daniel De Foe, noticed this defect, and pointed out how absurd it was, that all the time should be spent on the languages which learning was to be fetched from, and none on the language it was to be delivered in. To this error he attributed the fact that many learned, and otherwise excellent, ministers preached away their congregations, “while a jingling, noisy boy, that had a good stock in his face, and a dysentery of the tongue, though he had little or nothing in his head, should run away with the whole town.”[506]
NONCONFORMISTS.
Youths of all sorts were admitted into these academies, as into modern boarding-schools; hence some pupils might be of doubtful character. Also prejudices against the Church of England would naturally arise. Amongst the elder pupils the controversies of other days would be revived, and enthusiastic spirits would tilt a lance on the side of “the good old cause.” Charles I. and Charles II. would be no favourites; James II.’s Popery would be denounced; Cromwell would be excused and praised; and William III. lauded to the skies. In the common room where students unbent, there might be fun and laughter; in the private study there might be other volumes than classical and theological text-books; levity and idleness probably existed in these gatherings of great boys and young men; and damaging charges, no doubt, could be substantiated against some of them; but the character of these maligned institutions must, after all, be judged by their courses of study, by the character of their professors, and by their educational results. These tests being applied, lead to a favourable conclusion. The studies combined logic, metaphysics, and ethics, with readings in Colbert, Le Clerc, Suarez, More, Cicero, and Epictetus; natural and political philosophy, with the use of Aristotle, Descartes, and Vossius; and the perusal of Latin and Greek historians and poets. Candidates for the pastoral office read Divinity, and studied the Greek Testament with such critical helps as were afforded in those times. We are assured that in lectures the Church of England was treated with respect, the Predestinarian controversy was discussed with moderation, and Monarchical maxims of government were upheld.[507]