126 



SCHOOLS. 



expected from the activity of former centuries and 

 the institutions of Charlemagne. Dictating took 

 the place of lecturing even in the higher schools; 

 mere exercises of memory held the place of erudi- 

 tion ; the dead letter predominated, and an intelli- 

 gent investigation of the subjects studied was little 

 practised. The pupils of the Latin or trivial schools 

 wasted almost all their time in copying the manuals. 

 In the lower parish schools, the monks would not 

 rvcn permit the scholars to learn to write; being 

 desirous to confine the art, which was highly lucra- 

 tive and important before the invention of printing, 

 to the clergy (it was called the ars clericalis) ; and 

 the privilege of establishing writing schools for the 

 children of citizens could not be obtained by the 

 magistrates but by special agreement with the 

 clergy. But at length, with the increasing power 

 of the cities, the citizens became more independent 

 and the magistrates themselves began to take care 

 of the instruction of youth, which had been so much 

 neglected by the clergy, and to establish schools, in 

 which reading, writing, and the trivium were taught. 

 For these, as well as for the cathedral and parish 

 schools (the canons and parish priests having ceased 

 to occupy themselves with the instruction of youth), 

 itinerant monks and students were taken as teach- 

 ers. This gave rise to a separate class of teachers, 

 which indeed belonged to the clerical order, then in 

 the exclusive possession of learning, but resembled 

 the corporations of mechanics in its regular grada- 

 tions, and in the unsettled life of its members, who 

 wandered from place to place much to the detriment 

 of their morals. The schoolmasters were engaged 

 by the corporation of cities and the parish ministers, 

 were liable to be dismissed on a year or three 

 month's warning, and were obliged to employ as- 

 sistants, proportioned to the number of their pupils, 

 and to pay them out of their own salaries. These 

 assistant teachers (locati, because they were hired ; 

 stampuales, because they gave elementary instruc- 

 tion) were subject, as well as the head masters, to 

 the parish ministers, who used them as writers and 

 church servants. Sometimes the school-masters, 

 who taught Latin, were called rectors ; the assis- 

 tant teachers, who taught singing, reading, and 

 gave religious instruction (the latter consisting in 

 making their pupils commit to memory the creed, 

 the ten commandments, prayers, and psalms), were 

 called cantors. From this division originated in 

 some countries, for instance in Germany, the divi- 

 sion of Latin and German schools, which were, 

 however, most generally united. The elder pupils 

 of the highest class frequently travelled from one 

 school to another, pretending to detect hidden trea- 

 sures, and practising various mummeries and foole- 

 ries ; hence they were sometimes called histriones 

 (because they formed the first companies of actors, 

 as, in France, the Jongleurs and Gaillards), some- 

 times vacantivi (i. e. idlers). Generally they carried 

 with them younger pupils, who were their slaves, 

 to all intents and purposes, and had to procure them 

 support, by begging and stealing, if there was no other 

 way, and retained for themselves only such portion 

 of their acquisitions as their tyrants were willing to 

 let them enjoy. In the fourteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries, these bands of vagrants, among whom 

 there were sometimes vacantivi thirty years old, 

 who were yet unable to construe a Latin author, 

 were most numerous in Germany. As students, 

 they were allowed to wear swords, and thus were 

 frequently tempted to disturb the public peace. 

 When they stopped to pursue their studies in a 



school, they found lodgings in the M 'mol-rooms, or 

 about the churches, and lived upon the charity of 

 the citizens. If there were several schools in one 

 place, disputes often occurred between the pupils, 

 which were decided by arms, according to the la-L- 

 ion of the middle ages. As late as the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century, Luther complained that such 

 vagrants received appointments as teachers, because, 

 generally, these vacantivi, who had hardly seen a 

 university, were the only persons who could be 

 hired as school-masters, since the more learned 

 youths were ambitious of clerical benefices and a ca 

 demical professorships. Unique in its kind, in tin-, 

 history of the schools of this period, was the pi ous 

 fraternity of the Jeronymites. They consisted of 

 clergymen and laymen, who lived together, occupied 

 partly with mechanical arts, partly with the instru c- 

 tion of girls and boys, to whom they taught reading, 

 writing, and useful arts. For boys of talent and 

 diligence, there were Latin classes. On the model 

 of these schools, others were established in the Ne- 

 therlands, on the Rhine, and in Northern Germany. 

 These soon came into communication with the 

 Greeks who had fled to Italy ; and thus the study 

 of the classics became more cultivated. Through 

 the efforts of men like Thomas a Kempis, Hegius, 

 Erasmus, Agricola, Reuchlin, and Melanchthon, a 

 liberal study of the remains of classic antiquity 'was 

 commenced. Much was done, in and after the last 

 half of the fourteenth century, to promote this ob- 

 ject by Italian courts and universities, through the 

 instrumentality of learned Greeks, and of the Pla- 

 tonic academy of Florence, and towards the end of 

 the fifteenth century, through the learned Rhenish 

 society, established by Conrad Celtes. The result 

 at first, was only an intellectual luxury for the great 

 and the learned ; yet many skilful teachers pro- 

 ceeded from Basle, Tubingen, Heidelberg, and Wit- 

 tenberg, which,after the time of Luther and Melanch- 

 thon, became the head-quarters of instruction for 

 Germany. 



In all countries where the reformation became 

 general, it had a decided influence upon the schools 

 It even had a considerable influence in severa. 

 Catholic countries ; but its effects were more de- 

 cided in Germany. Accordingto the advice .of the 

 reformers in that country, who, in 1529, furnished 

 a great example of the care which government 

 should bestow on the schools, by the visitations 

 which they made of the schools in the electorate of 

 Saxony, the corporations of cities founded gymna- 

 sia and lyceums with permanent teachers. The 

 property of the convents, and of the church in gene- 

 ral, which had been confiscated by the governments, 

 was, in most cases, applied to the use of schools. 

 The number of these institutions was now much 

 increased, and their character elevated, and scienti- 

 fic school-masters were soon formed. The newly 

 invented art of printing assisted greatly in this work 

 of improvement. Only the conventual, cathedral, 

 and trivial schools of the Catholics remained re- 

 stricted to the narrow limits of the seven liberal arts. 

 Schools for girls were founded, and in the villages, 

 instructors were appointed to teach the catechism. 

 Whilst schools were thus acquiring a systematic 

 character in the sixteenth century, and the classi- 

 cal languages were even taught in the smaller towns, 

 the Jesuit schools arose towards the end of this 

 century among the Catholics. They soon obtained, 

 by their better taste and more scientific spirit, a 

 superiority over the old Catholic schools. But, 

 though they have exercised a great influence as has 



