THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION
by
ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY
Part 17 out of 18
[34] The mediaeval guild was an important institution, and the guild idea
was applied to many forms of mediaeval associations. Thus we read of
guilds of notaries in Florence, pleaders' and attorneys' guilds in London,
medical guilds and barber-surgeons' guilds in various cities, and of the
book-writers-and-sellers' guild in Paris. In a religious pageant given at
York, England, on Corpus Christi Day, 1415, fifty-one different local
guilds presented each a scene. (See Cheyney, E. P., _English Towns and
Gilds._, Pa. Sources, vol. II, no. I.)
[35] "The ready money of the merchant was as effective a weapon as the
sword of the noble, or the spiritual arms of the Church. Very speedily,
also, the men of the cities began to seize upon one of the weapons which
up to that time had been the exclusive possession of the Church, and one
of the main sources of its power,--knowledge and intellectual training.
With these two weapons in its hands, wealth and knowledge, the Third
Estate forced its way into influence, and compelled the other two
(Estates) to recognize it as a partner with themselves in the management
of public concerns." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_,
2d ed. p. 299.)
[36] In Hamburg, for example, the city council established four writing
schools in 1402, to which the church authorities objected. The council
refused to give them up, and for this was laid under the ban of the
Church, compelled to recede, admit that it had no right to establish such
schools, and pay the costs involved in the contest.
[37] For example, the three most widely read books of the thirteenth
century were _Reynard the Fox_, a profoundly humorous animal epic; _The
Golden Legend_, which so deeply impressed Longfellow; and the _Romance of
the Rose_, for three centuries the most read book in Europe.
[38] Despite all the criticisms one may offer against business, commerce
has always been a great civilizing force. While not anxious to pay heavy
taxes, the merchant has always been willing to pay what has been necessary
to support a public power capable of maintaining order and security for
property. Feudal turmoil, private warfare, and plundering are deadly foes
of commerce, and these have come to an end where commerce and industry
have gained the ascendant.
[39] As a rule a master craftsman might teach his trade to all his sons,
but could have only one other apprentice who received board, lodging,
clothing, and training, as one of the family. The guild still supervised
the apprentice, protecting him from bad usage or defective training by the
master.
[40] This required the production of a "masterpiece." This piece of work
had to be produced to prove high competency. For example, in the
shoemakers' guild of Paris, a pair of boots, three pairs of shoes, and a
pair of slippers, all done in the best possible manner, were required.
[41] Of thirty-three guilds investigated by Leach, all maintained song
schools, and twenty-eight maintained a grammar school as well. In London,
Merchant Taylors' School, Stationers' School, and the Mercers' School are
present-day survivals of these ancient guild foundations.
CHAPTER IX
[1] By the twelfth century the cathedral schools had passed the monastic
schools in importance, and had obtained a lead which they were ever after
to retain (R. 71).
[2] As contrasted with the monasteries, which were under a "Rule." The
opportunities offered by such open institutions in the Middle Ages can
hardly be overestimated.
[3] Frederick I, of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire of Germany and Italy.
[4] "No individual during the Middle Ages was secure in his rights, even
of life or property, certainly not in the enjoyment of ordinary freedom,
unless protected by specific guarantees secured from some organization.
Politically, one must owe allegiance to some feudal lord from whom
protection was received; economically, one must secure his rights through
merchant or craft guild; intellectual interests and educational activities
were secured and controlled by the Church." (Monroe, P., _Text Book in the
History of Education_, p. 317.)
[5] At first the older institutions organized themselves without charter,
securing this later, while the institutions founded after 1300 usually
began with a charter from pope or king, and sometimes from both (R. 100).
[6] The degree of master was originally the license to practice the
teaching trade, and analogous to a master shoemaker, goldsmith, or other
master craftsmen.
[7] "The universities, then, at their origins, were merely academic
associations, analogous, as societies of mutual guaranty, to the
corporations of working men, the commercial leagues, the trade-guilds
which were playing so great a part at the same epoch; analogous also, by
the privileges granted to them, to the municipal associations and
political communities that date from the same time." (Compayre, G.,
_Abelard and the Rise of the Universities_, p. 33.)
[8] "M. Bimbenet, in his _History of the University of Orleans_ (Paris,
1853) reproduces several articles from the statutes of the guilds, the
provisions of which are identical with those contained in the statutes of
the universities." (_Ibid._, p. 35.)
[9] Bologna and Paris were the great "master" universities of the
thirteenth century, while those founded on a model of either were more in
the nature of "journeymen" institutions.
[10] Between 1600 and 1700, although most of the cities capable of
supporting universities were provided with them, twenty-one more were
created, chiefly in Germany and Holland. The first American university
(Harvard) was established in 1636, and the second (Yale) in 1702. In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, without counting the United States or
any western-hemisphere country, forty more were created. Among the
important nineteenth-century creations were Berlin, 1810; Christiana,
1811; St. Petersburg, 1819; Brussels, 1834; London, 1836; and Athens,
1836.
[11] See Compayre, G., _Abelard_, pp. 87-90 for list of these "strikes."
[12] "It is impossible to fix the period at which the system of degrees
began to be organized. Things were done slowly. At the outset, and until
towards the end of the twelfth century, there existed nothing resembling a
real conferring of degrees in the rising universities. In order to teach
it was necessary to have a respondent, a master authorized by age and
knowledge....
"The 'license to teach,' nevertheless, became by slow degrees, as master
and pupils multiplied, a preliminary condition of teaching, a sort of
diploma more and more requisite, and of which the bishops (or their
representatives, the chancellors) were the dispensers. Up to the
fourteenth century there was hardly any other clearly-defined university
title." (Compayre, G., _Abelard_, pp. 142-43.)
[13] "It is manifest that the universities borrowed from the industrial
corporations their 'companionships,' their 'masterships,' and even their
banquets; a great repast being the ordinary sequel of the reception of the
baccalaureate or doctorate." (Compayre, G., _Abelard_, p. 141.)
[14] The term professor has become general in its significance, and is
used in all countries. In England the term master was retained for the
higher degree, while in Germany the term doctor was retained, and the
doctorate made their one degree. America followed the English plan in the
establishment of the early colleges, and the degree of A.B. and A.M. were
provided for. Later, when the German university influence became prominent
in the United States, the doctor's degree was superimposed on the English
plan.
[15] At Paris, for example, there were four nations--France, Picardy,
Normandy, and England. These were again divided into tribes, as for
example, there were five tribes of the French--Paris, Sens, Rheims, Tours,
and Bourges. Orleans had ten nations--France, Germany, Lorraine, Burgundy,
Champagne, Picardy, Normandy, Touraine, Guyenne, and Scotland. In those
days these represented separate nationalities, who little understood one
another, and carried their constant quarrels up to the very lecture
benches of the professors.
[16] A contemporary writer, Jacobus de Vitriaco, has left us an account of
student life at Paris, in which he says:
"The students at Paris wrangled and disputed not merely about the
various sects or about some discussions; but the differences between
the countries also caused dissensions, hatreds and virulent
animosities among them, and they impudently uttered all kinds of
affronts and insults against one another.
"They affirmed that the English were drunkards and had tails; the sons
of France proud, effeminate and carefully adorned like women. They
said that the Germans were furious and obscene at their feasts; the
Normans vain and boastful; the Poitevins traitors and always
adventurers. The Burgundians they considered vulgar and stupid. The
Bretons were reputed to be fickle and changeable, and were often
reproached for the death of Arthur. The Lombards were called
avaricious, vicious and cowardly; the Romans, seditious, turbulent and
slanderous; the Sicilians, tyrannical and cruel; the inhabitants of
Brabant, men of blood, incendiaries, brigands and ravishers; the
Flemish, fickle, prodigal, gluttonous, yielding as butter, and
slothful. After such insults from words they often came to blows."
(Pa. Trans. and Repts. from _Sources_, vol. II, no. 3, pp. 19-20.)
[17] In an American university the term _college_ or _school_ has largely
replaced the term _faculty_; in Europe the term _faculty_ is still used.
Thus we say College of Liberal Arts, or School of Law, instead of Faculty
of Arts, etc.
[18] For example, one of our modern state universities is organized into
the following faculties, schools, and colleges:
(1) college of liberal arts;
(2) school of medicine;
(3) school of law;
(4) school of fine arts;
(5) school of pure science;
(6) college of engineering;
(7) college of agriculture;
(8) school of history, economics, and social sciences;
(9) school of business administration;
(10) college of education;
(11) school of household arts;
(12) school of pharmacy;
(13) school of veterinary medicine;
(14) school of library science;
(15) school of forestry;
(16) school of sanitary engineering;
(17) the graduate school; and
(18) the university-extension division.
[19] "He was called 'The Philosopher'; and so fully were scholars
convinced that it had pleased God to permit Aristotle to say the last word
upon each and every branch of knowledge that they humbly accepted him,
along with the Bible, the church fathers, and the canon and Roman law, as
one of the unquestioned authorities which together formed a complete guide
for humanity in conduct and in every branch of science." (Robinson, J. H.,
_History of Western Europe_, p. 272.)
[20] This tendency increased with time, due both to the development of
secondary schools which could give part of the preparation, and to the
increasing number of students who came to the university for cultural or
professional ends and without intending to pass the tests for the
mastership and the license to teach. Finally the arts course was reduced
to three or four years (the usual college course), and the master's degree
to one, and for the latter even residence was waived during the middle of
the nineteenth century. The A.M. degree has recently been rehabilitated
and now usually signifies a year of hard study in English and American
universities, though a few eastern American institutions still play with
it or even grant it as an honorary degree. In Germany the arts course
disappeared, being given to the secondary schools entirely in the late
eighteenth century, and the universities now confer only the degree of
doctor.
[21] For a list of the books used in the faculty of medicine at
Montpellier, in 1340, see Rashdall, H., _Universities of Europe in the
Middle Ages_, vol. II, pt. I, p. 123; pt. II, p. 780.
[22] After the latter part of the thirteenth century the book-writing and
selling trade was organized as a guild industry, and the copying of texts
for sale became common. Then arose the practice of erasing as much of the
writing from old books as could be done, and writing the new book
crosswise of the page. In this way the expense for parchment was reduced,
and in the process many valueless and a few valuable books were destroyed.
Still, the cost for books during the days of parchment must have been
high. Walsh estimates that "an ordinary folio volume probably cost from
400 to 500 francs in our [1914] values, that is, between $80 and $100."
[23] In Germany the old mediaeval expression has been retained, and the
announcements of instruction there still state that the professor will
"read" on such and such subjects, instead of "offer courses," as we say in
the United States.
[24] Norton, in his _Readings in the History of Education; Mediaeval
Universities_, pp. 59-75, gives an extract from a text (Gratian) and
"gloss" by various writers, on the question--"Shall Priests be Acquainted
with Profane Literature, or No?" which see for a good example of mediaeval
university instruction and the manner in which a small amount of knowledge
was spun out by means of a gloss.
[25] Not many early library catalogues have been preserved, but those
which have all show small libraries before the days of printing. At
Oxford, where the university was broken up into colleges, each of which
had its own library, the following college libraries are known to have
existed: Peterhouse College (1418), 304 volumes; Kings College (1453), 174
volumes; Queens College (1472), 199 volumes; University Library (1473),
330 volumes. The last two were just before the introduction of printing.
The Peterhouse library (1418) was classified as follows:
Subject Chained Loanable
Theology............ 61 63
Natural Philosophy.. 26 |
Moral Philosophy.... 5 | 19
Metaphysics......... 3 |
Logic............... 5 15
Grammar............. 6 |
Poetry.............. 4 | 13
Medicine............ 15 3
Civil Law........... 9 20
Canon Law........... 18 19
Totals.............. 152 152
(Clarke. J. W., _The Care of Books_, pp. 145, 147.)
[26] Survivals of these old privileges still exist in the German
universities which exercise police jurisdiction over their students and
have a university jail, and in the American college student's feeling of
having the right to create a disturbance in the town and break minor
police regulations without being arrested and fined.
[27] See Compayre, G., _Abelard_, p. 201, for illustrations.
PART III
CHAPTER X
[1] One of the best known of the Troubadours was Arnaul de Marveil. The
following specimen of his art reveals both the new love of nature and the
reaction which had clearly set in against the "other-worldliness" of the
preceding centuries:
"Oh! how sweet the breeze of April,
Breathing soft as May draws near,
While, through nights of tranquil beauty,
Songs of gladness meet the ear:
Every bird his well-known language
Uttering in the morning's pride.
Reveling in joy and gladness
By his happy partner's side.
"When around me all is smiling,
When to life the young birds spring,
Thoughts of love I cannot hinder
Come, my heart inspiriting-
Nature, habit, both incline me
In such joy to bear my part:
With such sounds of bliss around me
Could I wear a sadden'd heart?"
[2] "In the Middle Ages man as an individual had been held of very little
account. He was only part of a great machine. He acted only through some
corporation--the commune, guild, the order. He had but little self-
confidence, and very little consciousness of his ability single-handed to
do great things or overcome great difficulties. Life was so hard and
narrow that he had no sense of the joy of living, and no feeling for the
beauty of the world around him, and, as if this world were not dark
enough, the terrors of another world beyond were very near and real."
(Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, 2d ed., p. 363.)
[3] Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, 2d. ed., p. 364.
[4] Petrarch refused to have the works of the Scholastics in his library.
Though a university man, he was out of sympathy with the university
methods of his time.
[5] "Florence was essentially the city of intelligence in early modern
times. Other nations have surpassed the Italians in their genius ... but
nowhere else except at Athens has the whole population of a city been so
permeated with ideas, so highly intellectual by nature, so keen in
perception, so witty and so subtle, as at Florence." (Symonds, J. A., _The
Renaissance in Italy_.)
[6] Sandys, J. E., in his _Harvard Lectures on the Revival of Learning_,
pp. 35-41, gives a list of the more important later finds, which see.
[7] Of the Florentine scholars one of the most famous was Niccolo Niccoli
(1363-1436), of whom Sandys says: "Famous for his beautiful penmanship, he
was much more than a copyist. He collected manuscripts, compared and
collated their various readings, struck out the more obvious corruptions,
restored the true text, broke it up into convenient paragraphs, added
suitable summaries at the head of each, and did much toward laying the
foundation of textual criticism." (Sandys, J. E., _Harvard Lectures on the
Revival of Learning_, p. 39.)
[8] For example, Laurentius Valla (1407-57) of Pavia, exceeded Niccoli in
ability in textual criticism. He extended this method to the New Testament
and, at the request of King Alphonso, of Naples, subjected the so-called
"Donation of Constantine," a document upon which the Papacy based in part
its claims to temporal power, to the tests of textual criticism and showed
its historical impossibility. This, indeed, was a new and daring spirit in
the mediaeval world, but it represented the spirit and method of the
modern scholar.
[9] For example, Ciriaco, of Ancona (1391-1450), has been called "the
Schliemann of his time." He spent his life in travel and in copying and
editing inscriptions. After exploring Italy, he visited the Greek isles,
Constantinople, Ephesos, Crete, and Damascus. One of his contemporaries,
Flavio Blondo, of Forli (1388-1463), published a four-volume work on the
antiquities and history of Rome and Italy. These two men helped to found
the new science of classical archaeology.
[10] Classical scholars assert that Greek became extinct in the Italy of
the Roman Church in 690 A.D. Greek was taught at Canterbury in the days of
the learned Theodore, of Tarsus (R. 59 a), who died in 690. Irish monks,
who carried Greek from Gaul to Ireland in the fifth century, brought it
back in the seventh century to Saint Gall, founded by them in 614. "John
the Scot," an Irish monk who was master of the Palace School under Charles
the Bald (c. 845-55), is said to have been able to read Greek. Roger
Bacon, the Oxford monk (1214-94), also knew a little Greek. William of
Moerbeke, in 1260, was able to translate the _Rhetoric_ and _Politics_ of
Aristotle for Thomas Aquinas. Greek monks were still found in the extreme
south of Italy at the time of the Renaissance, and Greek has remained a
living language in a few villages there up to the present time.
[11] Gian Antonio Campano; trans. by J. A. Symonds, _The Renaissance in
Italy_, vol. II, p. 249.
[12] For long it was thought that the revival of the study of Greek in the
West dated from the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, but this idea has
been exploded by classical scholars. The events we have enumerated in this
chapter show this, and at least five of the important Greek scholars who
taught in Italy came before that date. As the Turks closed in on this
wonderful eastern city, for so long the home of Greek learning and
culture, many other Greek scholars fled westward. The principal Greek
authors had, however, been translated into Latin before then.
[13] Some of the Italian universities participated but little in the new
movement. Bologna and Pavia, in particular, held to their primacy in law
and were but little affected by the revival.
[14] Bessarion (c. 1403-72), at one time Archbishop of Nicaea and
afterwards a cardinal at Rome, is said to have been surrounded by a crowd
of Greek and Latin scholars whenever he went out, and who escorted him
every morning from his palace to the Vatican. He was a great patron of
learned Greeks who fled to Italy. On his death he gave his entire library
of Greek manuscripts to Venice, and this collection formed the foundation
of the celebrated library of Saint Mark's.
[15] Symonds, J. A., _The Renaissance in Italy_, vol. II, p. 139.
[16] In 1436, Niccolo de Niccoli, a copyist of Florence, died, leaving his
collection of eight hundred manuscripts to the Medicean Library for the
use of the public, meaning thereby any scholar. This is said to have been
the first public-library collection in western Europe.
[17] Nicholas as a monk had had his enthusiasm for the new movement
awakened, and had gone deeply into debt for manuscripts. He was helped by
Cosimo de' Medici. When he became Pope (1447-55) he collected scholars
about him, built up the university at Rome, laid the foundations of the
great Vatican Library, and made Rome a great literary center. After the
death of Lorenzo the Magnificent at Florence, in 1492, the glory that had
been Florence passed to Rome, and it in turn became the cultural center of
Christendom.
[18] Much earlier, another Oxford man had returned from study under
Guarino at Ferrara--William Gray (1449)--but he seems to have made no
impression. A few other scholars went before Linacre and Grocyn and Colet,
but these men were the first to attract attention on their return.
[19] Agricola's real name was Roelof Huysman, meaning "Roelof the
husbandman." In keeping with a common practice of the time he Latinized
his name, taking the equivalent Roman word.
[20] This was bound in two volumes, and in 1911 a copy of it was sold at a
sale of old books, in New York City, for $50,000.
[21] A second edition of this Psalter was printed two years later, and
contains at the end, in Latin, a statement which Robinson translates as
follows: "The present volume of the Psalms, which is adorned with handsome
capitals and is clearly divided by means of rubrics, was produced not by
writing with a pen, but by an ingenious invention of printed characters:
and was completed to the glory of God and the honor of Saint James by John
Fust, a citizen of Mayence, and Peter Schoifher of Gernsheim, in the year
of our Lord 1459, on the 29th of August."
[22] The usual early edition was three hundred copies.
[23] At Florence about three hundred editions are said to have been
printed before 1500; at Bologna, 298; at Milan, 625; and at Rome, 925.
[24] The following numbers of different editions are said to have been
printed at the northern cities before 1500: Paris, 751; Cologne, 530;
Strassburg, 526; Nuremberg, 382; Leipzig, 351; Basel, 320; Augsburg, 256;
Louvain, 116; Mayence, 134; Deventer, 169; London, 130; Oxford, 7; Saint
Albans, 4.
[25] By 1500 it is said that a book could be purchased for the equivalent
of fifty cents which a half century before would have cost fifty dollars.
CHAPTER XI
[1] Much as universities have contributed to intellectual progress,
hostility to new types of thinking and to new subjects of study has been,
through all time, a characteristic of many of their members, and often it
has required much pressure from progressive forces on the outside to
overcome their opposition to new lines of scholarship and public service.
[2] For a list of these treatises, see Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_,
vol. v, p. 154.
[3] The distinguished author, Montaigne, was mayor in 1580.
[4] This order had begun as an institution for the instruction of the
poor, emphasizing the use of the Bible and the vernacular, but when the
new learning came in from Italy, classical learning was added and the
instruction of the brotherhood became largely humanistic.
[5] The influence of the old Greek classical terms in this connection is
interesting, and is another evidence of the permanence of Greek ideas.
Sturm here adopted the Italian nomenclature, Vittorino da Feltre having
called his school a _Gymnasium Palatinum_, or Palace School. Guarino wrote
of _gymnasia Italorum_. Both derived the term from the _Gymnasia_ of
ancient Greece, just as the academies of the Italian cities took their
name from the _Academy_ of Plato at Athens (p. 44). Another famous Greek
school was the _Lyceum_, founded by Aristotle (p. 44). All these names
came in during the Revival of Learning in Italy, and were applied to the
new classical schools at a time when every term, and even the names of
men, were given classical form. As a result the Italian secondary schools
of to-day are known as _ginnasio_, and the German classical secondary
schools as _gymnasia_. The French took their term from the _Lyceum_, hence
the French _lycees_. The English named their classical schools after the
chief subject of study, hence the English _grammar schools_. In 1638
Milton visited Italy, and was much entertained in Florence by members of
the academy and university there. In 1644 he published his _Tractate on
Education_, in which he outlined his plan for a series of classical
_academies_ for England. Milton was a church reformer, as were the
Puritans, and the Puritans, in settling America, brought over first the
term _grammar school_, and later the term _academy_ to England.
[6] Melanchthon, in his famous Saxony plan of 1528, had provided for but
three classes (R. 161). The class-for-each-year idea was new in German
lands.
[7] This became a fixed practice, Latin being the one language of the
school. A century later, when it was attempted by the Jansenists, in
France, to teach Greek directly through the vernacular, the practice was
loudly condemned by the Jesuits as impious, because it broke the
connection between France and Rome.
[8] His phrase book, _De Copia Verborum et Rerum_, went through sixty
editions in his lifetime, and was popular for a century after his death.
His book of proverbs, the _Adagia_, was in both Latin and Greek, and was
widely used. His Book of Sayings from the Ancients (_Apophthegmata_) was a
collection of little stories, much like some of our best modern books for
elementary-school use. His _Colloquies_, or Latin dialogues, were widely
used for two centuries in Protestant countries. These four were written
between 1511 and 1519, and largely for use in Saint Paul's School. His
Latin edition of Theodorus Gaza's Greek Grammar (1516) gave English
schools for the first time a standard text.
[9] They were _On the First Liberal Education of Children_ (1529), and _On
the Order of Study_ (1511).
[10] His _Praise of Folly_ (1509), and his _Ciceronian_ (1528).
[11] The introduction of the new learning into the English universities
was easier than elsewhere, because the English universities had broken up
into groups of residence halls, known as _colleges_. If the old colleges
could not be reformed new ones could be created, and this took place.
Trinity College, at Cambridge, founded in 1540, was from the first a
center of humanistic studies. That same year the King founded royal
professorships of Civil Law, Hebrew, and Greek at Cambridge.
[12] Elizabeth had had for her tutor Roger Ascham, author of _The
Scholemaster_, and a teacher of Greek at Cambridge (R. 139).
[13] For generations this famous grammar was to England what Donatus was
to mediaeval Europe. It was also used in the grammar schools of New
England. Lily visited Jerusalem and studied under the best Latin teachers
in Rome, so that he ranks with Linacre, Grocyn, and Colet as an introducer
of classical culture into England.
[14] Winchester was the first of the so-called "great public schools" of
England, of which Eton, Saint Paul's, Westminster, Harrow, Charterhouse,
Rugby, Shrewsbury, and Merchant Taylors' are the other eight. The
foundation statutes of Winchester made elaborate provision for "a Warden,
a Head Master, ten Fellows, three Chaplains, an Usher, seventy scholars,
three Chapel Clerks, sixteen Choristers, and a large staff of servants,"
as did Henry VIII later on for Canterbury (R. l72 a). The Warden and
Fellows were the trustees. In addition to the seventy scholars
(Foundationers) other non-foundationers (Commoners) were to be admitted to
instruction. The admission requirements were to be "reading, plain song,
and Old Donatus," and the school was to teach Grammar, the first of the
Liberal Arts. Except for the change in the nature of the instruction when
the new learning came in, this and the other "public schools" remained
almost unchanged until the second half of the nineteenth century.
[15] Statutes for this school had provided the following entrance
regulations: "But first see that they can the Catechisme in English or
Latyn, that every one of the said two hundred & fifty schollers can read
perfectly & write competently, or els lett them not be admitted in no
wise."
[16] His _The Positions_ (1581), and _The Elementarie_ (1582). See Chapter
XVIII.
[17] Solomon Lowe, in his Grammar, published in 1726, gives a bibliography
of 128 _Phrase Books_ which had appeared by that time. The following
selection from the _Colloquies_ of Corderius (R. 136) illustrates their
nature:
Col. 7. Clericus Col. 7. Clericus,
The Master. Magister.
C. Master, may not I and my uncle's Licetne, Magister, ut ego &
son go home? patruelis eamus domom?
M. To what end? Quid eo?
C. To my sister's daughter's wedding. Ad nuptias consobrinae.
M. When is she to be married? Quando est nuptura?
C. To-morrow. Crastino die.
M. Why will you go so quickly? Cur tam cito vultis ire?
C. To CHANGE OUR CLOATHS. _Ut mutemus vestimenta_.
[18] Sturm, Trotzendorf, and Neander insisted on the use of Latin in all
conversation in the school, and the Jesuits later on subjected boys to a
whipping if reported as having used the vernacular.
[19] Leach, A. F., _English Schools at the Reformation_, p. 105.
CHAPTER XII
[1] Up to this time the only Latin Bible had been the _Vulgate_ (p. 131),
translated by Jerome in the fourth century. Erasmus went back to and
edited the original Greek manuscripts, and then prepared a new parallel
Latin translation, the two being printed side by side. He also added many
explanations of his own which mercilessly exposed the mistakes of the
theologians and the Church, and pointed out the errors in translation
which were embodied in the _Vulgate_. This work passed through numerous
editions and sold in thousands of copies all over Europe.
So dangerous was this comparative method that "Greek was judged a
heretical tongue. No one should lecture on the New Testament, it was
declared, without a previous theological examination. It was held to be
heresy to say that the Greek or Hebrew text read thus, or that a knowledge
of the original language is necessary to interpret the Scriptures
correctly."
[2] This was accomplished between 1382 and 1384. Wycliffe translated only
a part of the Old Testament, and the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint
Mark of the New. The remainder was done under his direction by others. The
translation was from the Latin _Vulgate_, and was crude and imperfect. The
large number of copies of parts of this translation which have survived,
in manuscript form, to the present time show that it must have awakened
much interest, and been widely copied and recopied during the century
before the invention of printing.
[3] The heretic, it should be remembered, was the anarchist of the Middle
Ages. The Church regarded heresy as a crime, worthy of the most severe
punishments. The Church and the civil governments proceeded against the
heretic as against an enemy of society and order. Heretics could not give
evidence in a civil court, were prohibited from marrying or from giving a
son or daughter in marriage, and even to speak with a heretic was an
offense. Even torture and death were regarded as justified to stamp out
heresy.
[4] "What would have been the result had the Council of Constance
succeeded where it failed? It seems certain that one result would have
been the formation of a government for the Church like that which was
taking shape at the same time in England--a limited monarchy with a
legislature gradually gaining more and more the real control of affairs.
It seems almost equally certain that with this the churches of each
nationality would have gained a large degree of local independence, and
the general government of the Church have assumed by degrees the character
of a great federal and constitutional State. If this had been the case, it
is hard to see why all the results which were accomplished by the
reformation of Luther might not have been attained as completely without
the violent disruption of the Church." (Adams, G. B., _Civilisation during
the Middle Ages_, p. 403.)
[5] In 1302 the first "Estates-General" of France supported the King, and
denied the right of the Pope to any supremacy over the State in France. In
England, about the same time, the right of the Pope to levy taxation on
the English was disputed by King and Parliament. In 1446 William III of
Saxony limited the powers of ecclesiastical courts, and forbade appeals
from Saxon decisions to any foreign court.
[6] The London _Academy_, 1893, p. 197, published evidence to show that
there was a widespread demand among the bishops of Spain for church
reformation, during the fifteenth century, and along the same lines that
Luther advocated later.
[7] "But all these attempts at reformation in the Church, large and small,
had failed, as had those of the early fifteenth century to reform its
government, leaving the Church as thoroughly mediaeval in doctrine and in
practical religion as it was in polity. It was the one power, therefore,
belonging to the Middle Ages which still stood unaffected by the new
forces and opposed to them. In other directions the changes had been many;
here nothing had been changed. And its resisting power was very great.
Endowed with large wealth, strong in numbers in every State, with no lack
of able and thoroughly trained minds, its interests, as it regarded them,
in maintaining the old were enormous, and its power of defending itself
seemed scarcely to be broken....
"The Church had remained unaffected by the new forces which had
transformed everything else. It was still thoroughly mediaeval. In
government, in doctrine, and in life it still placed the greatest emphasis
upon those additions which the peculiar conditions of the Middle Ages had
built upon the foundations of the primitive Christianity, and it was
determined to remain unchanged." (Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the
Middle Ages_, pp. 406, 412.)
[8] Every reform movement produces two kinds of reformers, each seeking
the same ultimate goal, but differing materially as to methods of work. In
the religious conflict these two types are well represented by Erasmus and
Luther. Erasmus was as deeply interested in religious reform as Luther and
devoted the energies of a lifetime to trying to secure reform, but he
believed that reformation should come from within, and that the way to
obtain it was to remain within the old organization and work to reform it.
Luther represented the other type, the type which feels that things are
too bad for mere reform to be effective, and that what is wanted is
rebellion against the old. The two types seldom agree as to means, and
usually part company. One is content to be known as a conservative or a
conformer; the other delights in being classed as a progressive or even as
a radical.
[9] "The early Protestant theory was that an individual's Christian
religious life, convictions, and salvation were to be worked out through a
direct study of the Scriptures, acceptance of the obvious teachings of
Christ as there presented, and direct appeal to God through prayer for
help in leading a Christian life. The Catholic position, on the other
hand, came to be that the individual's religious life was to be achieved
through the intervention of the Church, which claimed on historical
grounds to have been founded by Christ, and to be his official
representative and mediator in the world. It was through the teachings of
this Church that the individual was to receive his ideas of the Christian
religion, to be stimulated to believe these, to be kept in the path of
righteousness, and to obtain salvation." (Parker, S. C., _History of
Modern Elementary Education_, p. 35.)
[10] Adams, G. B., _Civilization during the Middle Ages_, p. 413.
[11] A good illustration of the way parts of Germany and German
Switzerland were divided by religious differences is to be found in the
Canton of Appenzell, in northeastern Switzerland. As each small
governmental division had to follow the religion of the ruling prince in
Germany, so in Switzerland the cantons divided on religious lines. To
compromise matters in Appenzell the canton was divided into two half
cantons, following the religious wars of 1597--Inner Rhoden, of sixty-
three square miles, exclusively Roman Catholic, and Outer Rhoden, of
ninety-six square miles, entirely under the Swiss Reformed Church.
[12] Calvinism is also a product of the northern humanism, Calvin's
difficulties with the Church arising out of his study of the Greek texts.
Calvin had received an excellent theological and legal education, and used
the knowledge and training derived from both to help him formulate a
comprehensive system of belief.
[13] Like the famous _Sentences_ of Peter Lombard (p. 171), it formed a
splendid textbook of the new faith. Calvin based his work on the
infallibility of the Bible, as against that of the Church and Pope, and
presented, in a remarkably clear and logical manner, the principles of
Calvinistic doctrine. Before 1630, as many as seventy-four full editions
and fourteen partial editions of the _Institutes_ had been printed, and in
nine different languages.
[14] This went through seventy-seven editions (fourteen in English) before
1630, and in nearly all the languages of Europe, and was one of four
Catechisms, one of which was required of all Oxford undergraduates in
1578. It was adopted by the Scotch, Huguenot, French-Swiss, and Walloon
(Dutch) churches, and was widely used in Holland, England, and America.
(See "Calvin and Calvinism," in Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol.
I.)
[15] By 1560 the Calvinists had two thousand houses for religious worship
in France, and demanded religious freedom. In 1562 the persecutions began
in earnest, and for the next thirty-six years religious warfare ruled in
France. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes established religious freedom, though
this was revoked in 1685.
[16] Even the celebrated Peace of Augsburg (1555) which left to each
German prince and each town and knight the liberty to choose between the
beliefs of the Roman Church and the Lutheran, provided only for religious
freedom for the rulers, and only one alternative. Calvinists, for example,
hated equally by Catholic and Lutheran, were not included. So deeply was
the idea of Church and State as inseparable embedded in the minds of men
that no provision was made for the religious freedom of subjects. This was
a much later evolution, coming first in America.
[17] In the proposals for the League of Nations Covenant, made at the
conclusion of the World War, in 1919, religious freedom for all persons in
any State in the League was finally decided to be a necessary principle
for any world league.
[18] Paulsen, Fr., _German Education, Past and Present_, pp. 96-97.
[19] The terms _atheist_ and _atheism_ now arose, as the modern
substitutes for excommunication and imprisonment, and during the next two
centuries these were applied, by the churchmen of the time, to almost
every prominent philosopher and scientist and independent thinker.
[20] Very severe measures were enacted to prevent the spread of the
contagion of heresy. All Protestant literature was forbidden circulation
in Catholic lands. The printing-press, as a disseminator of heresy, was
placed under strict license. Certain books were ordered burned. Perhaps
the most extreme and ruthless measure was the prohibition, under penalty
of death, of the reading of the Bible. That this harsh act was carried out
the record of martyrs shows. As one example may be mentioned the sister of
the Flemish artist Matsys and her husband, he being decapitated and she
buried alive in the square fronting the cathedral at Louvain, in 1543, for
having been caught reading the sacred Book.
CHAPTER XIII
[1] Dr. Philip Schaff, the Church historian, says: "Schleiermacher reduced
the whole difference between Romanism and Protestantism to the formula,
'Romanism makes the relation of the individual to Christ depend on his
relation to the Church: Protestantism, _vice versa_, makes the relation of
the individual to the Church depend on his relation to Christ.'" (Quoted
by G. B. Adams, from a pamphlet, _Luther Symposiac_, Union Seminary,
1883.)
[2] The importance of writing before the days of printing can readily be
appreciated. Just as the monk was carefully trained to copy manuscript, so
the clerk for a city or a business house needed to be carefully trained to
read and write. Writing formed a distinct profession, there being the
"city writer" (city clerk, we say), Latin and vernacular secretaries,
traveling writers, writing teachers, etc. Writing masters sometimes taught
reading also, but usually not. In some French cities the guild of writing
masters was granted an official monopoly of the privilege of teaching
writing in the city.
[3] Reckoning schools were to meet direct commercial needs in the cities,
and were seldom found outside of commercial towns. The arithmetic taught
in the Latin schools as a part of the Seven Liberal Arts was largely
theoretical; the arithmetic in the reckoning schools was practical. The
work of the professional reckoner in time developed similarly to that of
the professional writer, and often the two were combined in one person.
When employed by a city he was known as the city clerk. In 1482 the first
reckoning book to be published in Germany appeared, filled with merchant's
rules and applied problems in denominate numbers and exchange. See an
interesting monograph by Jackson, L. L., _Sixteenth Century Arithmetic_
(Trs. College Pubs., No. 8, 1906).
[4] Luther tried to make a translation so simple that even the unlearned
might profit by listening to its reading. To insure that his translation
should be in a language that would be perfectly clear and natural to the
common people, he went about asking questions of laborers, children, and
mothers to secure good colloquial expressions. It sometimes took him weeks
to secure the right word, but so satisfactory was the result that it fixed
the standard for modern German, and still stands as the most conspicuous
landmark in the history of the German language.
[5] The French version of this great original work represents the first
use of French as a language for an argumentative treatise, and, as
Calvin's work was more widely discussed than any other Protestant
theological treatise, it did much to fix the character of this national
language.
[6] "Tyndale's translation is not only the first which goes back to the
original tongues, but it is so noble a translation in its mingled
tenderness and majesty, its Saxon simplicity, and its smooth, beautiful
diction that it has been but little improved on since. Every succeeding
version is little more than a revision of Tyndale's." (J. Paterson Smyth,
_How We Got Our Bible_.)
The following extract from Matthew is illustrative: "O oure father which
art in heven, halewed be thy name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy wyll be
fulfilled, as well in erth, as hit ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure
dayly breade. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them
whych treaspas vs. Lede vs nott in to temptacion, but delyvre vs from
yvell. Amen."
[7] The most famous of Luther's German hymns, and one expressive of the
Protestant spirit, is the one beginning:
"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, "A mighty fortress is our God,
Ein gute Wehr und Waffen." A bulwark never failing."
This hymn has often been called "The Marseillaise of the Reformation."
[8] The evolution, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the
German vernacular school-teacher out of the parish sexton is one of the
interesting bits of our educational history.
[9] Magdeburg is typical, where the Lutherans united all the parish
schools under the supervision of one pastor.
[10] Wittenberg, founded in 1502 as a new-learning university, and in
which Luther, Melanchthon, and Bugenhagen were professors, was the first
of the universities to become Protestant. Gradually the other universities
in Protestant Germany threw off their allegiance to the Pope, and took on
that of the ruling prince.
[11] The first Protestant university to be founded was Marburg, in Hesse,
in 1527. When this later went over to Calvinism, a new university was
founded at Giessen, in 1607, by a migration of the Lutheran professors.
Other Protestant universities founded were Koenigsberg (1544) Jena (1555),
Helmstadt (1576), and the free-city universities of Altdorf (1573),
Strassburg (1621), Rinteln (1621), Duisberg (1655) and Kiel (1665). The
support of these came, to a considerable extent, from old monastic or
ecclesiastical foundations which had been dissolved after the Reformation.
[12] This was in response to a petition to the King, nearly two years
before. The King finally granted the request, "though maintaining that he
was not compelled by God's Word to set forth the Scriptures in English,
yet 'of his own liberality and goodness was and is pleased that his said
loving subjects should have and read the same in convenient places and
times.'" (Procter and Frere, _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p.
30.)
[13] "The injunctions directed that 'a Bible of the largest volume in
English' be set up in some convenient place in every church, where it
might be read, only without noise, or disturbance of any public service,
and without any disputation, or exposition." (_Ibid._, p. 30.)
[14] The right to read the Bible was later revoked, during the closing
years of Henry VIII's reign (d. 1547), by an act of Parliament, in 1543,
which provided that "no woman (unless she be a noble or gentle woman), no
artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, under the degree of
yeomen ... husbandmen, or laborers" should read or use any part of the
Bible under pain of fines and imprisonment.
[15] These were, distributed by reigns, as follows:
Henry VIII (1509-1547) 63 schools
Edward VI (1547-1553) 50 "
Mary (1553-1558) 19 "
Elizabeth (1558-1603) 138 "
James I (1603-1625)
Charles I (1625-1649) 142 "
Protectorate (1649-1660)
Charles II (1660-1685)
James II (1685-1688) 146 "
CHAPTER XIV
[1] "These Calvinists had a common program of broad scope--not merely
doctrinal, but also political, economic, and social. Their common program
and their social ideals demanded education of all as instruments of
Providence for church and commonwealth. Their industrious habits and
productive economic life provided funds for education. Their
representative institutions in both church and commonwealth not only
necessitated general diffusion of knowledge, but furnished the
organization necessary for founding, supervising, and maintaining, in
wholesome touch with the common man, both elementary and higher
institutions of learning. Their disciplined and responsive conscience,
their consequent intensity of moral conviction and spirit of self-
sacrifice for the common weal, compelled them to realize, in concrete and
permanent form, their ideals of college and common school." (Foster, H.
D., In Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. i, p. 499.)
[2] In 1625 a list of the famous men of the city of Louvain, in Belgium,
was printed. More than one fourth of those listed had studied in the
colleges of Geneva.
[3] Foster, H. D., Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 491.
[4] In Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 498.
[5] "That public schools abounded throughout the Netherlands is evident.
Every study of the archives of town or province discloses their presence.
The minutes of every religious body bear overwhelming testimony not only
to the existence of schools, but also a zealous interest in their
maintenance." (Kilpatrick, W. H., _Dutch Schools of New Netherlands_, p.
37.)
[6] For long the Church had had the Inquisition, but, while it had
rendered loyal and iniquitous service, the results had been in no way
commensurate with the bitter hatred which its work awakened.
Excommunication, persecution, imprisonment, the stake, and the sword had
been tried extensively, but with only partial success. In education the
reformers had shown the Church a new method, which was positive and
effective and did not awaken opposition, and from the reformer's zeal for
Latin grammar schools to provide an intelligent ministry the Church took
its cue of establishing schools to train its future leaders. It was a
long-headed and far-sighted plan, and its success was proportionately
large.
[7] This is not true of their missions in foreign lands, where the mission
priests usually gave elementary instruction. Elementary schools were
maintained in the Jesuit missions of North and South America. Thus a
mission school was established at Quebec as early as 1635, and one at
Newtown, in Catholic Maryland, in 1640. After 1740 elementary parish
schools were opened by the Jesuits among the German Catholics in
Pennsylvania. From these beginnings Catholic parish schools have been
developed in the United States.
[8] The Order was reestablished in 1814 and it has since been allowed to
reestablish itself in most countries, though not in France or Germany.
There are 41 Jesuit colleges in America, in 21 states. (For list see
Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. III, p. 540.) In the revision of
its course of instruction, in 1832, modern studies were added, but the
Society has never played any such conspicuous part in education since its
reestablishment as it did during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
[9] It is an interesting speculation as to whether the fact that the
Jesuits made such headway in German lands, and so deeply impressed their
training on the children of the nobility there, has had any connection
with the attitude of German and Austrian political leaders in their
governmental and political policies since that time.
[10] By the middle of the eighteenth century the Jesuits had lost much of
their former vigor, and their colleges their former large influence. They
had become powerful and arrogant, mixed deeply in political intrigues,
quarreled with any one who crossed their path, and refused to change their
instruction to meet new intellectual needs. They were finally driven from
France, Spain, Portugal, and German lands, and were ultimately abolished
as an Order.
[11] The care with which the _Ratio Studiorum_ was worked out is typical
of the thoroughness of the Order. A preliminary outline of work was
followed for many years, the whole being experimental. Reports on it were
made, and finally a preliminary Ratio was issued, in 1586. This was again
revised and cast into final form, in 1599. In this form it remained until
1832, when some modern studies were added.
[12] Dabney, R. H., _The Causes of the French Revolution_, p. 203.
[13] For example, the "States-General" of France met four times during the
seventeenth century, with weighty problems of religion and state for
consideration, yet in three of the four meetings resolutions were passed
urging the clergy to establish schoolmasters in all the towns and
villages, and a general system of compulsory education for all.
[14] _Les vrais Constitutions des Religieuses de la Congregation de Nostre
Dame_, chap. xi, sec. 6, 2d ed., Toul, 1694.
[15] See especially Felix Cadet, _Port-Royal Education_ (Scribners, New
York, 1898), for translations of many of the brief pedagogical writings of
members of the Order.
[16] Father Demia, at Lyons, had organized what was probably the first
training-school for masters, in 1672. La Salle's training-school dates
from 1684. Francke's German _Seminarium Praeceptorum_, at Halle, the first
in German lands, dates from 1696.
[17] The numerous pictures of schools and educational literature well into
the nineteenth century show the general prevalence of the individual
method of instruction. It was the method in American schools until well
toward the middle of the nineteenth century. To have graded the children
and introduced class instruction in 1684 was an important advance which
the world has been slow in learning.
[18] Everything was according to rule, even the ferule, which must be made
of two strips of leather, ten to twelve inches long, sewed together. All
offenses, and the number and location of the blows for each, were
specified. Later the corporal punishment was replaced by penances.
CHAPTER XV
[1] Representing not over one tenth of the population, the Protestants in
France had from the first been subjected to much persecution. In the
Massacre of Saint Bartholomew (1572) over one thousand had been massacred
in Paris and ten thousand more in the provinces. After some warfare, a
treaty was made, in 1598, under which the so-called "Edict of Nantes"
guaranteed religious toleration for the Protestants. In 1685 this was
revoked, and their ministers were given fifteen days to leave France. The
members were, however, forbidden to leave. Many, though, got away,
escaping to the Low Countries, England, and to America.
[2] The culmination of this dissatisfaction came in 1649, when Charles I
was beheaded and "The Commonwealth" was established under Cromwell. During
the troubled times which followed (1649-60) much damage was done to the
churches of England by way of eliminating vestiges of "popery."
[3] Some of these went back to England--many after the establishment of
the Protestant Commonwealth under Cromwell (1649). It has been estimated,
for three of the early colonies, that the population by decades was
approximately as follows:
1630 1640 1650 1660
New Netherlands.............. 500 1000 3000 6000
Massachusetts................ 1300 14000 18000 25000
Virginia...................... 3000 8000 17000 33000
[4] The name and the form came alike from old England, where an irregular
area known as a "town" or a "township," constituted the unit of
representation in the shiremoats and the membership of the church parish.
Almost every town and parish officer known in England was created by the
new towns in New England, with practically the same functions as in the
old home.
[5] "The settlers were in the first freshness of their Utopian enthusiasm,
and their church establishment was the very heart of their enterprise. It
became therefore a matter of primary importance to educate preachers. For
ages preparation for the ministry had consisted mainly in acquiring a
knowledge of Latin, the sacred tongue of western Christendom. Though the
Latin service was no longer used by Protestants, and the Vulgate Bible had
been dethroned by the original text, and though the main stream of English
theology was by this time flowing in the channel of the mother tongue, the
notion that all ministers should know Latin had still some centuries of
tough life in it." (Eggleston, E., _The Transit of Civilization_, p. 225.)
[6] For example, the town of Boston, in 1641, devoted the income from
Deere Island to the support of schools, and Plymouth, in 1670,
appropriated the income from the Cape Cod fishing industry to the support
of grammar schools (R. 194 c).
These are among the earliest of the permanent endowments for education in
America.
[7] See _The Development of School Support in Colonial Massachusetts_, by
George L. Jackson, for a careful study of the different early methods of
school support.
[8] The Puritan emigrants to New England represented a sturdy and well-
educated class of English country squires and yeomen. They came of thrifty
and well-to-do stock, the shiftless and incompetent not being represented.
All had had good educational advantages, and many were graduates of
Cambridge University. It has been asserted that probably never since has
the proportion of college men in the community been so large.
[9] Martin, Geo. H., _The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public-School
System_, pp. 14-16.
[10] The charging of a tuition fee to those who could afford to pay was a
common European practice of the time, nevertheless the public authorities
--at that time a mixture of civil and church officials--provided the
school, employed and licensed the teacher, determined the textbooks to be
used, and laid down the conditions under which the school should be
conducted. The schoolmaster assisted the church by participating in the
Sunday services. The elementary school of the Dutch, which was copied in
the New Netherland, was thus a combination of a public and parochial, and
a free and pay school.
[11] This was, of course, much more true of New York City and Island than
of the outlying Dutch villages. In these latter a public school was for
long maintained.
[12] Draper, A. S., _Origin and Development of the New York Common School
System_.
[13] Among the German Lutherans, who constituted nearly one fourth of the
total population of the colony, a school is claimed to have been
established alongside the church by each of the congregations "at the
earliest possible period after its formation." The close connection
between these Lutheran congregations and their schools may be seen from
the following contract, dated at Lancaster, in 1774:
"I, the undersigned, John Hoffman, parochial teacher of the church at
Lancaster, have promised in the presence of the congregation, to serve
as choirister, and, as long as we have no pastor, to read sermons on
Sunday. In summer I promise to hold cathechetical instruction with the
young, as becomes a faithful teacher, and also to lead them in the
singing and attend to the clock."
[14] The seventeenth-century Virginia legislation relating to education
is as follows:
1643. Orphans to be educated "according to the competence of their
estate."
1646. "If the estate be so meane and inconsiderate that it will not
reach to a free education, then that orphan [shall] be bound to
some manuall trade ... except some friends or relatives be willing
to keep them."
1660-61. "To avoid sloth and idleness ... as also for the relief of
parents whose poverty extends not to giving [their children]
breeding, the justices of the peace should ... bind out children
to tradesmen or husbandmen to be brought up in some good and
lawful calling."
[15] "Perhaps the most remarkable, because the most widespread and complex
illustration of the educational genius of Calvinism is to be found in the
American colonies, where the various European streams of Calvinism so
converged that the seventeenth-century colonists were predominantly
Calvinists--not merely the Puritans of New England, but the Dutch,
Walloons, Huguenots, Scotch, and Scotch-Irish, with a considerable Puritan
admixture in Anglican Virginia and Catholic Maryland." (Foster, H. D., in
Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 498.)
[16] "To illustrate how omnipresent this religious atmosphere was, I
cannot do better than to cite the occasion when Judge Sewell found that
the spout which conducted the rain water from his roof did not perform its
office. After patient searching, a ball belonging to the small childeren
was found lodged in the spout. Thereupon the father sent for the minister
and had a season of prayer with his boys that their mischief or
carelessness might be set in its proper aspect and that the event might be
sanctified to their spiritual good. Powers of darkness and of light were
struggling for the possession of every soul, and it was the duty of
parents, ministers, and teachers to lose no opportunity to pluck the
children as brands from the burning." (Johnson Clifton, _Old-Time Schools
and Schoolbooks_, p. 12.)
CHAPTER XVI
[1] Thales had guessed that water was the primal element from which all
had been derived; Anaximenes guessed air; Heraclitus fire; Pythagoras held
that number was the essence of all things; Empedocles thought that fire
and heat, accompanied by "indestructible forces," formed the basis;
Xenophanes had guessed air, fire, water, and earth, and had worked out a
complete scheme of creation. For an interesting discussion of these early
attempts to explain creation, see J. W. Draper, _History of the
Intellectual Development of Europe_, vol. 1, chap. iv.
[2] Among the treatises by him accepted as genuine are _On Airs, Waters,
and Places_; _On Epidemics_; _On Regimen in Acute Diseases_; _On
Fractures_; and _On Injuries of the Head_.
[3] For example, Hippocrates had held that the human body contains four
"humors"--blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile--and that disease was
caused by the undue accumulation of some one of these humors in some
organ, which it was the business of the physician to get rid of by blood-
letting, blistering, purging, or other means.
[4] From a collection of doggerel rhymes put out by two pastors and
doctors of theology at Basle, in 1618, by the names of Grassner and Gross,
to interpret the orthodox theory of comets to peasants and school
children.
[5] "The earth is a sphere, situated in the center of the heavens; if it
were not, one side of the heavens would appear nearer to us than the
other, and the stars would be larger there. The earth is but a point in
comparison to the heavens, because the stars appear of the same magnitude
and at the same distance _inter se_, no matter where the observer goes on
the earth. It has no motion of translation.... If there were a motion, it
would be proportionate to the great mass of the earth and would leave
behind animals and objects thrown into the air. This also disproves the
suggestion made by some, that the earth, while immovable in space, turns
round on its own axis." (Ptolemy, Digest of argument of Book 1 of the
_Almagest_.)
[6] In the dedicatory letter Copernicus states that he had had the
completed manuscript in his study for thirty-six years, and published it
now only on the urging of friends.
[7] To secure the greatest possible accuracy he constructed a wooden
outdoor quadrant some ten feet in radius, with a brass scale, thus
permitting readings to a fraction of an inch.
[8] "The current view was that comets were formed by the ascending of
human sins from the earth, that they were changed into a kind of gas, and
ignited by the anger of God. This poisoned stuff then fell down on
people's heads, causing all kinds of mischief, such as pestilence, sudden
death, storms, etc." (Dryer, J. L. E., _Tycho Brahe_.)
[9] "For over fifty years he was the knight militant of science, and
almost alone did successful battle with the hosts of Churchmen and
Aristotelians who attacked him on all sides--one man against a world of
bigotry and ignorance. If then... when face to face with the terrors of
the Inquisition he, like Peter, denied his Master, no honest man, knowing
all the circumstances, will be in a hurry to blame him." (Fahie, J. J.,
_Galileo, His Life and Work_.)
[10] See Routledge, R., _A Popular History of Science_, pp. 135-36, for a
good digest of Bacon's inductive investigation, as a result of which he
arrived at the conclusion that "Heat is an expansive bridled motion,
struggling in the small particles of bodies."
[11] Bacon himself died a victim of one of his inductive experiments.
Wishing to try out his theory that cold would prevent or retard
putrefaction, he killed a chicken, cleaned it, and packed it in snow. In
so doing he contracted a cold which caused his death.
CHAPTER XVII
[1] See footnote 1, p. 272, on the origin of the term. Six years before
the publication of the _Tractate_, Milton had visited Italy, and had been
much entertained in Florence by members of the Academy and University
there. In the _Tractate_ he outlined a plan for a series of classical
Academies for England, many of which were established. From England the
term was carried to America, and became the name for a great development
of semi-private secondary schools which flourished during the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
[2] Unlike England and France, the German lands long remained feudal and
not united. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century Germany was
made up of more than three hundred little principalities, of which sixty
were free cities. Each little principality was self-governing and
maintained its little court.
[3] Richard Mulcaster (1531-1611), for forty-eight years a famous London
Latin grammar-school master, often classed as a precursor of the sense
realists, in two books, published in 1581 and 1582, had urged the great
importance of a study of the English tongue, and of using it as a medium
for instruction. In his _Elementarie_ (1582) he had said: "Our own
language bears the joyful title of our liberty and freedom, the Latin
remembers us of our thralldom and bondage. I love Rome, but London better;
I favor Italy, but England more. I honor the Latin, but I worship the
English." (R. 226.)
[4] The school was opened with 433 boys and girls enrolled. It was divided
into six classes. In the first three German only was used. In the first
two classes the children were taught to read and write German, Genesis
being the reading book of the second class. In the third class German
grammar was studied. Music, religion, and the elements of arithmetic were
also taught in these classes. In the fourth class Latin was begun,
studying Terence, and Latin grammar was worked out from the constructions.
In the sixth and highest class Greek was taught. A good education was to
be given in six years, through the saving of time.
[5] This was written out in his native Czech tongue, but was not published
at the time. A quarter of a century later it appeared in Latin, with his
collected works, as published by his patron at Amsterdam (1657). It was
then forgotten for two centuries. In 1841 the manuscript was found at
Lissa, and published in the original at Prague, in 1848. The first English
edition appeared in 1896.
[6] See the English edition edited by M. W. Keatinge, A. and C. Black,
London, 1896.
[7] The following is illustrative: "Sec. 518 (Geometria). Ex concursu
linearum fit angulus qui est vel rectus, quern linea incidens
perpendicularis efficit, ut est (in subjecto schemate) angulus A C B; vel
acutus, minor recto, A ut B C D; vel obtusus, major recto, ut A C D."
[Illustration:
B D
| /
|/ A-------------
C ]
[8] A very good reprint of the 1727 English edition, with pictures from
the first edition of 1658, was brought out by C. W. Bardeen, of Syracuse,
New York, in 1887. This ought to be in all libraries where the history of
education is taught.
[9] Basedow's _Elementarwerk mit Kupfern_ (Elementary Reading Book, with
copperplate pictures), published in 1773 (see p. 535), was the first
attempt, and not a particularly successful one either, to improve on the
_Orbis Pictus_.
[10] This term was at first applied in derision, just as Methodism was
applied to the English religious reformers in the eighteenth century, but
the term was soon made reputable by the earnestness and ability of those
who accepted it.
[11] Francke's father had been counselor to Duke Ernest of Gotha, who had
created for his little duchy the most modern-type school system of the
seventeenth century. How much Francke's progressive ideas in educational
matters go back to the work of Duke Ernest forms an interesting
speculation.
[12] "Francke had the rare ability to see clearly what needed doing, and
then to do it regardless of obstacles or consequences. The magnitude of
his work in Halle is simply marvelous, and yet what he actually
accomplished is insignificant in comparison with what he inspired others
to do. He showed how practical Christianity could be incorporated in the
work of the common schools; his plan was immediately adopted by Frederick
William I and made well-nigh universal in Prussia. He showed how the
Realien could be profitably employed in a Latin school, and even made a
constituent part of a university preparatory course; as a result of his
methods, and especially of his suggestion that schools should be founded
for the exclusive purpose of fitting the youth of the citizen class for
practical life, there has since grown up in Germany a class of Real-
schools." (Russell, J. E., _German Higher Schools_, p. 64.)
[13] Paulsen, Fr., _The German Universities_, p. 36.
[14] As late as 1805, according to Paulsen, of the whole number of
students in the universities of Prussia, there were but 144 in the
combined medical faculties, as against 555 in theology, and 1036 in law.
[15] Francke relates that, as a student at Erfurt (c. 1675), he was able
to study physics and botany, along with his theological studies. Oxford
records show the publication of a list of plants in the "Physick Garden"
there as early as 1648. The garden was endowed about that time by the Earl
of Danby, and in 1764 lectures on botany were begun there. Lord Bacon, in
his _Advancement of Learning_ (1605), had written: "We see likewise that
some places instituted for physic (medicinae) have annexed the commodity
of gardens for simples of all sorts, and do likewise command the use of
dead bodies for anatomies."
[16] Thomasius was made professor of theology, and Francke professor of
Greek and Oriental languages. Both had been expelled from the University
of Leipzig. Christian Wolff, who had been banished by Frederick William I,
was recalled and made professor of philosophy. It was he who "made
philosophy talk German."
CHAPTER XVIII
[1] Quick, R. H., _Essays on Educational Reformers_, 26. ed., p. 97.
[2] Locke was the first to lay the basis for modern scientific psychology
to supersede the philosophic psychology of Plato and Aristotle. In his
_Essay on the Conduct of the Human Understanding_ (1690) upon which he
spent many years of labor, he first applied the methods of scientific
observation to the mind, analyzed experiences, and employed introspection
and comparative mental study. He thus built up a psychology based on the
analysis of experiences, and came to the conclusion that our knowledge is
derived by reflection on experience coming through sensation. He is
consequently called the founder of empirical psychology, and the
forerunner of modern experimental psychology and child study. His
philosophy, and his theory of education as well, thus came to be a
philosophy of experience--a rejection of mere authority, and a constant
appeal to reason as a guide.
[3] "Freedom and self-reliance, these are the watchwords of these two
marvelously modern men (Montaigne and Locke). Expansion, real education,
drawing out, widening out, that is the burden of their preaching; and
voices in the wilderness theirs were! Narrowness, bigotry, flippancy,
inertia, these were the rule until Rousseau's time, and even his voice was
to fall upon deaf ears in England." (Monroe, Jas. P., _Evolution of the
Educational Ideal_, p. 122.)
[4] Schmidt, Karl, _Geschichte der Paedagogik_, translated in Barnard's
_American Journal of Education_.
[5] Rules for the schools of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
[6] Duke Eberhard Louis's _Renewed Organization of the German School_,
1729; republished 1782.
[7] One of the earliest horn books known appears in the illuminated
manuscript shown in Figure 44, which dates from 1503. The first definitely
known horn book in England dates from 1587, while most, of the specimens
found in museums date from about the middle of the eighteenth century. As
improvements or variations of the horn book, cardboard sheets and wooden
squares, known as battledores, appeared after 1770. On these the
illustrated alphabet was printed. (See Tuer, A. W., _History of the Horn
Book_, 2 vols., illustrated, London, 1886, for detailed descriptions.)
[8] The diversity of religious primers which had grown up by 1565 led
Henry VIII to cause to be issued a unified and official Primer, containing
the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Credo, and the Ten Commandments.
[9] The title-page of an edition of 1715 declares that edition to be:
"_The Protestant Tutor_, instructing Youth and Others, in the compleat
method of _Spelling, Reading, and Writing True English_: Also discovering
to them the Notorious _Errors_, Damnable _Doctrines_, and cruel
_Massacres_ of the bloody _Papists_ which _England_ may expect from a
_Popish_ Successor."
[10] This was compiled by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, called
together by Parliament, in 1643, composed of 121 clergymen, 30 of the
laity, and 5 special commissioners from Scotland. It held 1163 sessions,
extending over six years, and framed the series of 107 questions and
answers which appeared in the Primer as "The Shorter Catechism."
[11] So great was the sale of this book that the author was able to
support his family during the twenty years (1807-27) he was at work on his
_Dictionary of the English Language_, entirely from the royalties from the
_Speller_ though the copyright returns were less than one cent a copy. At
the time of his death (1843), the sales were still approximately a million
copies a year, and the book is still on sale.
[12] In Nuremberg, as an example of German practice, the guild of writing
and arithmetic masters continued, throughout all of the eighteenth
century, and even into the nineteenth, as an organization separate from
that of other types of teachers.
[13] Francke, in his Institutions at Halle (p. 418), had tried to develop
a number-concept, and apply the teaching. In the Braunschweig-Lueneburg
school decree of 1737 appeared directions for beginning number work by
counting the fingers, apples, etc., and basing the multiplication table on
addition. A few German writers during the eighteenth century suggested
better instruction, Basedow (chapter XXII) tried to institute reform in
the teaching of the subject, but it was left for Pestalozzi (chapter XXI)
to give the first real impetus to the rational teaching of the subject.
[14] Such offices were not considered in any sense as degrading, and the
attaching of the new duty of instructing the young of the parish in
reading and religion dignified still more the other church office. As
schools grew in importance there was a gradual shifting of emphasis, and
finally a dropping of the earlier duties. Many early school contracts in
America (Rs. 105; 236) called for such church duties on the part of the
parish teacher. See also footnote, p. 370.
[15] In 1722 country schoolmasters in Prussia were ordered selected from
tailors, weavers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and carpenters, and in 1738
they were granted the tailoring monopoly in their villages, to help them
to live. Later Frederick the Great ordered that his crippled and
superannuated soldiers should be given teaching positions in the
elementary vernacular schools of Prussia.
[16] The "Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge," organized in
1609 to aid the Church and provide schools at home, and the "Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," organized in 1702 to
supply ministers and teachers for churches and schools in the English
colonies.
[17] In 1704 the ordinary charge in London for a "School of 50 Boys
Cloathed comes to about L75 per Annum, for which a School-Room, Books, and
Firing are provided, a Master paid, and to each Boy is given yearly, 3
Bands, 1 Cap, 1 Coat, 1 Pair of Stockings, and one Pair of Shooes." A
girls' school of the same size cost L60 per annum, which paid for the
room, books, mistress, fixing and providing each girl with "2 Coyfs, 2
Bands, 1 Gown and Petticoat, 1 Pair of knit Gloves, 1 Pair of Stockings,
and 2 Pair of Shooes."
[18] McCarthy, Justin H., _Ireland since the Union_, p. 13.
[19] Frederick the Great, in the General School Regulations issued in 1763
(R. 274, sec 15), strictly prohibited the keeping of "hedge schools" in the
towns and rural districts of Prussia.
[20] Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_ (1678,) Defoe's _Robinson Crusoe_
(1719), and _Gulliver's Travels_ (1726), The publication of these
tremendously stimulated the desire to read.
[21] Strype, John, _Stowe's Survey of London_, 1720; bk. 1, pp. 199, 201-
02.
[22] Paulsen, Friedrich, _German Education_, p. 141.
[23] Barnard, Henry. Translated from Karl von Raumer; in his _American
Journal of Education_, vol. v., p. 509.
[24] Salmon, David, "The Education of the Poor in the Eighteenth Century";
in _Educational Record_, London, 1908.
[25] "If you would comprehend the success of Rousseau's _Emile_, call to
mind the children we have described, the embroidered, gilded, dressed-up,
powdered little gentlemen, decked with sword and sash,... alongside of
these, little ladies of six years, still more artificial,--so many
veritable dolls to which rouge is applied, and with which a mother amuses
herself for an hour and then consigns them to her maids for the rest of
the day. This mother reads _Emile_. It is not surprising that she
immediately strips the poor little thing (of its social harness of
whalebone, iron, and hair) and determines to nurse her next child
herself." (Taine, H. A., _The Ancient Regime_, vol. II, p. 273.)
[26] Montmorency, J. E. G. de., _The Progress of Education in England_,
pp. 46, 50.
[27] A change now took place in the intellectual life of Germany: "The
nation began to make itself independent of French influence. In literature
Klopstock and Lessing broke the fetters of French classicism. An ardent
desire for a deeper culture peculiar to the German people asserted itself.
But the soil of the national life was too poor in genus for a purely
German culture, hence scholars looked for new models and found them in
classical antiquity. The ancient authors became again the masters of
culture and taste; with this difference, though, that it was not desired
to learn how to express their thoughts as well as the learner's thoughts
in Latin, but to become familiar with their manner of thinking and
feeling, for the purpose of enlarging and ennobling German thought and
speech. From this standpoint Greek, on account of its more valuable
literature, assumed a higher importance, and, by degrees, a superiority
over Latin." (Nohle, E., _History of the German School System_, pp. 48-
49.)
[28] "If any one be destined for a studious career, let him not shirk his
Greek lessons, inasmuch as he would thereby suffer irretrievable loss....
He who reads the classic writers, studying mathematical reasoning at the
same time, trains his mind to distinguish what is true or false, beautiful
or unsightly, fills his memory with manifold fine thoughts, attains skill
in grasping the ideas of others as well as in fluently expressing his own,
acquires a number of excellent maxims for the improvement of the
understanding and the will, and thus learns by practice nearly all that a
good compendium of philosophy could teach him in systematic order and
dogmatic form." (School Regulations for Braunschweig-Lueneburg, of 1737.)
[29] "Be assured that if you forget your Greek, yes, even your Latin too,
you still have the advantage of having given your mind a training and
discipline that will go with you into your future occupation." (Friedrich
Gedike, 1755-1803.)
PART IV
CHAPTER XIX
[1] "The Period of the Enlightenment" had two main aims: (1) the
perfection of the individual, which gave a new emphasis to education, and
(2) the mastery of man over his environment, which expressed itself
through the new scientific studies. In German lands elementary education,
a regenerated classical education, and the _Realschule_ were the fruits of
this period.
[2] Frederick used to say that his subjects might think as they pleased so
long as they behaved as he ordered.
[3] Though Prussia was primarily Lutheran, Catholics, Mennonites, Jews,
and Huguenots early found a home in the kingdom. Frederick used to say
that "all religions must be tolerated, for in this country every man must
go to heaven in his own way."
[4] After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (p. 301; 1685), over
20,000 French Huguenots--merchants, manufacturers, skilled workmen--found
an asylum in Prussia alone. Settling in the Rhine countries, they
contributed much to the future development of this region.
[5] "For the first time since Luther, the German people could call a great
hero their own, whether they were the subjects of Frederick or not. Joyous
pride in this prince, whose achievements in times of peace were no less
than those in time of war, brought national consciousness to life again
and this national feeling found expression in literature. It was the
restoration of confidence in themselves that gave the Germans the courage
to break with French rules and French models, and to seek independently
after ideals of beauty. And this self-confidence they owed to Frederick
the Great." (Priest, G. M., _History of German Literature_, p. 116.)
[6] Though Joseph II claimed to be a good Catholic, he felt that
monasticism had outlived its usefulness as an institution, and that its
continuance was inimical to the interests of organized society and the
State. This view has since been taken by the rulers of every progressive
modern nation.
[7] The Cortes, or National Parliament, met but three times during the
century, and when it did meet possessed but few powers and exercised but
little influence.
[8] The first Russian university was established at Kiev, in 1588; the
second at Dorpat, in 1632; the third at Moscow, in 1755; and the fourth at
Kasan, in 1804. The University of Petrograd dates from 1819.
[9] The great difference between a church and true religion must always be
kept in mind. Religion is a thing of the spirit, and its principle
represents the loftiest thoughts of the race; a church is a human
governing institution, and clearly subject to its own ambitions and the
human frailties of its age.
[10] That is, 25,000 to 30,000 families. There were also, in even numbers,
83,000 monks in 2500 monasteries (one for every ninety square miles in
France), 37,000 nuns in 1500 convents, and 60,000 priests. Of the soil of
France, the King and towns owned one fifth, the clergy and the monks one
fifth, the nobility one fifth, the bourgeoisie one fifth, and the
peasantry one fifth.
[11] In 1788 the 131 bishops and archbishops of France had an average
income of 100,000 francs, and 33 abbots and 27 abbesses had incomes
ranging from 80,000 to 500,000 francs. The Cardinal de Rohan, Archbishop
of Strasbourg, had an income of more than 1,000,000 francs, and the 300
Benedictine monks at Cluny had an income of more than 1,800,000 francs.
[12] "The real importance of _Esprit des lois_ is not that of a formal
treatise on law, or even on polity. It is that of an assemblage of the
most fertile, original, and inspiriting views on legal and political
subjects, put in language of singular suggestiveness and vigour,
illustrated by examples which are always apt and luminous, permeated by
the spirit of temperate and tolerant desire for human improvement and
happiness, and almost unique in its entire freedom at once from
doctrinairism, visionary enthusiasm, egotism, and an undue spirit of
system. The genius of the author for generalization is so great, his
instinct in political science so sure, that even the falsity of his
premises frequently fails to vitiate his conclusions." (Saintsbury,
George, in _Encyclopedia Britannica_, vol. XVIII, p. 777.)
[13] "By the captivating prospects which he held out of future progress,
and by the picture which he drew of the capacity of society to improve
itself, Turgot increased the impatience which his countrymen were
beginning to feel against the despotic government, in whose presence
amelioration seemed to be hopeless. These, and similar speculations of the
time, stimulated the activity of the intellectual classes, cheered them
under the persecutions to which they were exposed, and emboldened them to
attack the institutions of their native land." (Buckle, H. T., _History of
Civilisation in England_, vol. I, p. 597.)
[14] Duruy, V., _History of France_, p. 523.
[15] _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, 11th ed., vol. viii, p. 204.
[16] "The real king of the eighteenth century was Voltaire; but Voltaire,
in his turn, was a pupil of the English. Before Voltaire became acquainted
with England, through his travels and his friendships, he was not
Voltaire, and the eighteenth century was still undeveloped." (Cousin,
_History of Philosophy_.)
[17] "The first Frenchmen who in the eighteenth century turned their
attention to England were amazed at the boldness with which, in that
country, political and religious questions of the deepest moment were
discussed--questions which no Frenchman in the preceding age had dared to
broach. With wonder they discovered in England a comparative freedom of
the public press, and saw with astonishment how in Parliament itself the
government of the Crown was attacked with impunity, and the management of
its revenues actually kept under control. To see the civilization and
prosperity of England increasing, while the power of the upper classes and
the King diminished, was to them a revelation.... England, said Helvetius,
is a country where the people are respected, a country where each citizen
has a part in the management of affairs, where men of genius are allowed
to enlighten the public upon its true interests." (Dabney, R. H., _Causes
of the French Revolution_, p. 141.)
[18] Tennyson, in his "You ask me why," well describes the growth of
constitutional liberty in England when he says that England is:
"A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where freedom broadens slowly down,
From precedent to precedent."
[19] James I, in 1604, had declared: "As it is atheism to dispute what God
can do, so it is presumption and a high contempt in a subject to dispute
what a king can do." For this attitude the Commons continually contested
his authority, his son lost his crown and his head, and his grandson was
driven from the throne and from England. By contrast, and as showing the
different attitude toward self-government of the two peoples, the German
Emperor William II, three centuries later, so continually boasted of his
rule by divine right that "Me and God" became an international joke, and
to his assumption the German people took little or no exception.
[20] The passage of the Bill of Rights (1689) ended the divine-right-of-
kings idea in England for all time. This prohibited the King from keeping
a standing army in times of peace, gave every subject the right to
petition for a redress of grievances, gave Parliament the right of free
debate, prohibited the King from interfering in any way with the proper
execution of the laws, declared that members ought to be elected to
Parliament without interference, and gave the Commons control of all forms
of taxation.
[21] Though the English first developed regulated or constitutional
government, they themselves have no single written constitution. Instead,
the foundations of English constitutional government rest on _Magna
Charta_ (1215), the Petition of Rights (1628), and the Bill of Rights
(1689), these three constituting "the Bible of English Liberty."
[22] At first used as a term of ridicule, from the very methodical manner
in which the Wesleyans organized their campaigns.
[23] "If we except the great Puritan movement of the seventeenth century,
no such appeal had been heard since the days when Augustine and his band
of monks landed in Kent and set forth on their mission among the barbarous
Saxons. The results answered fully to the zeal that awakened them. Better
than the growing prosperity of extending commerce, better than all the
conquests of the East or the West, was the new religious spirit which
stirred the people of both England and America, and provoked the National
Church to emulation in good works--which planted schools, checked
intemperance, and brought into vigorous activity all that was best and
bravest in a race that when true to itself is excelled by none."
(Montgomery, D. H., _English History_, p. 322.)
[24] The contrast between eighteenth-century England and France, in the
matter of religious liberty, is interesting. In France the Church took
care, during the whole of the eighteenth century, that the persecution
process should go on. "In 1717 an assembly of seventy-four Protestants
having been surprised at Andure, the men were sent to the galleys and the
women to prison. An edict of 1724 declared that all who took part in a
Protestant meeting, or who had any direct or indirect communication with a
Protestant preacher, should have their heads shaved and be imprisoned for
life, and the men condemned to perpetual servitude in the galleys. In 1745
and 1746, in the province of Dauphine, 277 Protestants were condemned to
the galleys and a number of women flogged. From 1744 to 1752 six hundred
Protestants in the east and south of France were condemned to various
punishments. In 1774 the children of a Calvinist of Rennes were taken from
him. Up to the very eve of the Revolution Protestant ministers were hanged
in Languedoc, and dragoons were sent against their congregations."
(Dabney, R. H., _Causes of the French Revolution_, p. 42.)
[25] Back as early as 1695 the Commons had refused to renew the press-
licensing act, enacted in 1637, to control heresy. This had confined
printing to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, and to twenty master printers
and four letter founders for the realm. This refusal marks the beginning
of the freedom of the press in England. In 1709 the copyright law was
enacted, and in 1776 the redress against publishers of libelous articles
was confined to the ordinary courts of law. A century ahead of France, and
more than two centuries ahead of Teutonic and Romanic lands, England
provided for a free press and open discussion.
[26] George III, always consistently wrong, opposed this extension of
popular rights. In 1771 he wrote the Prime Minister, Lord North: "It is
highly necessary that this strange and lawless method of publishing
debates in the papers should be put a stop to. But is not the House of
Lords the best court to bring such miscreants before; as it can fine, as
well as imprison, and has broader shoulders to support the odium of so
salutary a measure."
[27] "It is evident that a nation perfectly ignorant of physical laws will
refer to supernatural causes all the phenomena by which it is surrounded.
But as soon as natural science begins to do its work there are introduced
the elements of a great change. Each successive discovery, by ascertaining
the law that governs events, deprives them of that apparent mystery in
which they were formerly involved. The love of the marvelous becomes
proportionally diminished; and when any science has made such progress as
to enable it to fortell the events with which it deals, it is clear that
the whole of those events are at once withdrawn from the jurisdiction of
the supernatural, and brought under the authority of natural power? Hence
it is that, supposing other things equal, the superstition of a nation
must always bear an exact proportion to the extent of its physical
knowledge." (Buckle, H. T., _History of Civilization in England_, vol. 1,
p. 269.)
[28] The Charter of this Society stated the purpose to be to increase
knowledge by direct experiment, and that the object of the Society was the
extension of natural knowledge, as opposed to that which is supernatural.
As an institution embodying the idea of intellectual progress it was most
bitterly assailed by partisans of the old flunking.
[29] Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, and Manchester, for example, great
manufacturing cities early in the nineteenth century, were insignificant
villages in Cromwell's day. The steam engine made the coal and iron
deposits of northern England of immense value, and the "smoky mill towns"
that arose in the north began to displace southern agricultural England in
population, wealth, and importance.
[30] For example, in 1774 John Howard began his great work in prison
reform; in 1772 pressing to death was abolished; in 1780 the ducking-stool
was used for the last time; and soon thereafter the earlier laws relating
to the death penalty were modified, and the slave trade abolished. Up to
the middle of the eighteenth century as many as one hundred and sixty
offenses were punishable by death.
[31] The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, a
great admirer of French life and a propagandist for French ideas.
[32] Compare the American preamble with the following sentence from the
_Social Contract_ (Book I, chap, ix) of Rousseau:
"I shall close this chapter and this book with a remark which ought to
serve as a basis for the whole social system; it is that instead of
destroying natural equality, the fundamental pact, on the contrary,
substitutes a moral and lawful equality for the physical inequality
which nature imposed upon men, so that, although unequal in strength
or intellect, they all become equal by convention and legal right."
[33] "I read attentively the _cahiers_ drawn up by the three Orders before
their union in 1789. I see that here the change of a law is demanded, and
there of a custom--and I make note of them. I continue thus to the end of
this immense task, and, when I come to put side by side all these
particular demands, I see, with a sort of terror, that what is called for
is the simultaneous and systematic abolition of all the laws and of all
the customs existing in the country; whereupon I instantly perceive the
approach of the vastest and most dangerous revolutions that have taken
place in the world." (De Tocqueville, A. C., _State of Society in France
before the Revolution of 1789_, p. 219.)
[34] For example, the clergy of Rodez and Saumur demanded "that there may
be formed a plan of national education for the young"; the clergy of Lyons
that education be restricted "to a teaching body whose members may not be
removable except for negligence, misconduct, or incapacity; that it may no
longer be conducted according to arbitrary principles, and that all public
instructors be obliged to conform to a uniform plan adopted by the States-
General"; the clergy of Blois that a system of colleges under church
control be formed (R. 252); the nobility of Lyons that "a national
character be impressed on the education of both sexes"; the nobility of
Paris that "public education be perfected and extended to all classes of
citizens"; the nobility of Blois that "better facilities for the education
of children, and elementary textbooks adapted to their capacity, wherein
the rights of man and the social duties shall be clearly set forth" shall
be provided, and to this end that "there be established a council composed
of the most enlightened scholars of the capital and of the provinces and
of the citizens of the different orders, to formulate a plan of national
education, for the benefit of all classes of society, and to edit
elementary textbooks." The Third Estate of Blois demanded the
establishment of free schools in all the rural parishes.
[35] See footnote 1, page 165. One of the great results of the French
Revolution was the abolition of serfdom in central and western Europe. The
last European nation to emancipate its serfs was Russia, where they were
freed in 1861.
[36] "Great was the difference between France at the end of 1791 and at
the end of 1793. At the former date all looked hopeful for the future; the
king was the father of his people; the Constitution of 1791 was to
regenerate France, and set an example to Europe; all old institutions had
been renovated; everything was new, and popular on account of its
novelty.... By the end of 1793 all looked threatening for the future; for
the purpose of repelling her foreign foes, who included nearly the whole
of Europe, France submitted to be ground down by the most despotic and
arbitrary government ever known in modern history,--the Great Committee of
Public Safety; the Reign of Terror was in full exercise, and it was
doubtful whether the energy, audacity, and concentrated vigour of the
Great Committee would enable France to be victorious over Europe, and thus
secure for her the right of deciding on the character of their own
government. She was to be successful, but at what a cost!" (Stephens, H.
M., _The French Revolution_, vol. II, p. 512.)
[37] The _Code Napoleon_, prepared in 1804, was the first modern code of
civil laws, though Frederick the Great had earlier prepared a partial code
of Prussian laws. What the _Justinian Code_ was to ancient Rome, this,
organized into better form, was to modern France. This _Code_, prepared
under Napoleon's direction, substituted one uniform code of laws worthy of
a modern nation for the thousands of local laws which formerly prevailed
in France.
CHAPTER X
[1] The complaints were largely along such lines as that the instruction
was confined to a few Latin authors; that instruction in the French
language was neglected; that instruction in the history and geography of
France should be introduced; that time was wasted "in copying and learning
notebooks filled with vain distinctions and frivolous questions"; that
training in the use of the French language should be substituted for the
disputations in Latin; that in religion the study of the Bible was
neglected for books of devotion and propaganda compiled by the members of
the Order; that moral casuistry and religious bigotry were taught; and
that the discipline was unnecessarily severe and wrong in character.
[2] In 1759 the Jesuits were expelled from Portugal, in 1767 from Spain,
and in 1773 the Pope at Rome, "recognizing that the members of this
Society have not a little troubled the Christian commonwealth, and that
for the welfare of Christendom it were better that the Order should
disappear," abolished the Society entirely. Forty years later it was
reconstituted in a modernized form.
[3] Little boys wore their hair long and powdered, carried a sword, and
had coats with gilded cuffs, while little girls were dressed in imitation
of the lady of fashion. Proper deportment was an important part of a
child's training.
[4] The iconoclastic nature of Rousseau's volume may be inferred from its
opening sentence, in which he says: "Everything is good as it comes from
the hand of the author of nature; everything degenerated in the hand of
man." In another place he breaks out: "Man is born, lives, and dies in a
state of slavery. At his birth he is stitched into swaddling clothes, at
his death he is nailed in his coffin; and as long as he preserves the
human form he is held captive by our institutions."
[5] "I do not presume to exclude ecclesiastics, but I protest against the
exclusion of laymen. I dare claim for the nation an education which
depends only on the State, because it belongs essentially to the State;
because every State has an inalienable and indefeasible right to instruct
its members; because, finally, the children of the State ought to be
educated by the members of the State." (La Chalotais.)
[6] "Education cannot be too widely diffused, to the end that there may be
no class of citizens who may not be brought to participate in its
benefits. It is expedient that each citizen receive the education which is
adapted to his needs." (Rolland.)
[7] Condorcet had not been a member of the Constituent Assembly, but for
some years had been deeply interested in the idea of public education, and
had published five articles on the subject. His Report was a sort of
embodiment, in legal form, of his previous thinking on the question.
[8] All the educational aims of the past were now relegated to a second
place, and man became a political animal, "brought into the world to know,
to love, and to obey the Constitution." The _Declaration of the Rights of
Man_ became the new Catechism of childhood.
[9] This was created on a grand and visionary scale. Its purpose was to
supply professors for the higher institutions. It opened with a large
attendance, and lectures on mathematics, science, politics, and languages
were given by the most eminent scholars of the time. A normal school,
though, it hardly was, and in 1795 it closed--a virtual failure. In 1808
Napoleon re-created it, on a less pretentious and a more useful scale, and
since then it has continued and rendered useful service as a training-
school for teachers for the higher secondary schools of France.
[10] A total of 105 of these Central Schools were to be established, five
in Paris, and one in each of the one hundred chief towns in the
departments. By 1796 there were 40, by 1797 there were 52, by 1798 there
were 59, by 1799 there were 86, and by 1800 there were 91 such schools in
existence. This, times considered, was a remarkable development.
[11] "The commercial depression of 1740 fell upon a generation of New
Englanders whose minds no longer dwelt preeminently upon religious
matters, but who were, on the contrary, preeminently commercial in their
interests." (Green, M, L., _Development of Religious Liberty in
Connecticut_, p, 226.)
[12] Prominent in the Indiana constitutional convention of 1816 were a
number of Frenchmen of bearing and ability, then residing in the old
territorial capital--Vincennes. How much they influenced the statement of
the article on education is not known, but it reads as though French
revolutionary ideas had been influential in shaping it.
[13] For the original Bill of 1779 in full, in the original spelling, see
the _Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for
Virginia_, 1900-01, pp. lxx-lxxv.
[14] Though Jefferson had been Governor of Virginia during the
Revolutionary War; had repeatedly served in the Virginia legislature and
in Congress; and had twice been President of the United States, he counted
all these as of less importance than the three services mentioned, and in
preparing the inscription to be placed on his tomb he included only these
three.
CHAPTER XXI
[1] "As a man who sought after glory, and whose gloomy temper took umbrage
at everything, Rousseau complained that his _Emile_ did not obtain the
same success as his other writings. He was truly hard to please! The anger
of some, the ardent sympathy of others; on the one hand, the parliamentary
decrees condemning the book and issuing a warrant for the author's arrest,
the thunders of the Church, and the famous mandate of the Archbishop of
Paris; on the other hand, the applause of the philosophers, of Clairant,
Duclos, and d'Alembert,--what more, then, did he want? _Emile_ was burned
in Paris and Geneva, but it was read with passion; it was twice translated
in London, an honor which no French work had received up to then. In truth
never did a book make more noise and thrust itself so much on the
attention of men. By its defects, no less than by its qualities, by the
inspired and prophetic character of its style, as well as by the
paradoxical audacity of its ideas, _Emile_ swayed opinion and stirred up
the more generous parts of the human soul." (Compayre, G., _Jean-Jacques
Rousseau_, p. 100.)
[2] Paulsen, Fr., _German Education, Past and Present_, p. 157.
[3] Within three years Basedow had collected seven thousand
_Reichsthaler_, subscriptions coming to him from such widely scattered
sources as Joseph II of Austria, Empress Catherine of Russia, King
Christian VII of Denmark, "the wealthy class in Basle," the Abbot of the
monastery of Einsiedel in Switzerland, "the royal government of
Osnabruck," the Grand Prince Paul, and others. Jews and Freemasons seem to
have taken particular interest in his ideas. Freemason lodges in Hamburg,
Leipzig, and Goettingen were among the generous contributors.
[4] See Barnard's _American Journal of Education_, vol. v, pp. 487-520,
for an account of the examinations and the institution.
[5] "The pedagogical character of the _Real_ school was established by
Basedow and his followers. Originally the plan was to provide for the
middle classes what would be called nowadays manual training schools, in
which the scientific principles underlying the various trades and business
vocations should have a prominent place. These schools were to be one step
removed from the trade schools for the lower classes. But under the
influence of the Philanthropinists the _Real_ school was transformed into
a modern humanistic school, and placed in competition with the humanistic
_Gymnasium_." (Russell, J. E., _German Higher Schools_, pp. 65-66.)
[6] His two most important followers were Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746-
1818), who succeeded Basedow at Dessau and later founded a Philanthropinum
at Hamburg, and Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811), who founded a
school at Schnepfenthal, in Saxe-Gotha. Both these men had for a time been
teachers with Basedow at Dessau. Campe translated Locke's _Thoughts_ and
Rousseau's _Emile_ into German, wrote a number of books for children
(chief among which was the famous _Robinson der Juenger_), and also
prepared a number of treatises for teachers. Salzmann's school, opened in
1784 in the Thuringen forest, made much of gardening, agricultural work,
animal study, home geography, nature study, gymnastics, and recreation, as
well as book study. It was distinctively a small but high-grade
experimental school, so successful that in 1884 it celebrated its one
hundredth anniversary. A pupil in the school was Carl Ritter, the founder
of modern geographical study.
[7] "The picture shown in _Leonard and Gertrude_ is very crude. Everywhere
is visible the rough hand of the painter, a strong, untiring hand,
painting an eternal image, of which this in paper and print is the merest
sketch.... Read it and see how puerile it is, how too obvious are its
moralities. Read it a second time, and note how earnest it is, how exact
and accurate are its peasant scenes. Read it yet again, and recognize in
it the outpouring of a rare soul, working, pleading, ready to be despised,
for fellow souls." (J. P. Monroe, _The Educational Ideal_, p. 182.)
[8] "When I now look back and ask myself: What have I specially done for
the very being of education, I find I have fixed the highest supreme
principle of instruction in the recognition of _sense impression as the
absolute foundation of all knowledge_. Apart from all special teaching I
have sought to discover the _nature of teaching itself_, and the
prototype, by which nature herself has determined the instruction of our
race." (Pestalozzi, _How Gertrude teaches her Children_, X, Section 1.)
[9] "What he did was to emphasize the new purpose in education, but
vaguely perceived, where held at all, by others; to make clear the new
meaning of education which existed in rather a nebulous state in the
public mind; to formulate an entirely new method, based on new principles,
both of which were to receive a further development in subsequent times,
and to pass under his name; and finally, to give an entirely new spirit to
the schoolroom." (Monroe, Paul, _Text Book in the History of Education_,
p. 600.)
[10] In 1809 the German, Carl Ritter, a former pupil of Salzmann (see
footnote 2, p. 538) and the creator of modern geographical study, visited
Pestalozzi at Yverdon. Of this visit he writes:
"I have seen more than the paradise of Switzerland, I have seen
Pestalozzi, I have learned to know his heart and his genius. Never
have I felt so impressed with the sanctity of my vocation as when I
was with this noble son of Switzerland. I cannot recall without
emotion this society of strong men, struggling with the present, with
the aim of clearing the way for a better future, men whose only joy
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