SCHOOLS 



bishop 1 prescribed. The masters might be removed after three warnings for idleness or negligence 

 or failure to teach well (si minus ad docendum apti inveniantur). It is noteworthy that there is 

 absolutely no requirement that the masters should be in orders. As a matter of fact we know 

 that many, perhaps the majority of the grammar school masters, even at Winchester and Eton, 

 at this time and earlier and later, were not priests or even in orders, but were married men, laymen, 

 and in several cases, doctors, sometimes of medicine, but generally of law, and rarely of theology. 

 For the choristers it was only required that they should be of tender age and of sounding voices fit 

 for singing. Their master was to be skilled in singing and organ beating (organa pulsandi). He 

 did not have to attend choir on ordinary week days (ferilis simplicibus), when his place might be 

 taken by a lay clerk, but was bound to attend on Sundays and double and simple feasts. 



Neither the masters of the grammar school nor the grammar school boys were required to take 

 part in the services at all, or even to attend them. It was well recognised then, as in Langley's 

 time, that attendance at services on whole school days was quite incompatible with progress in 

 learning. Incidentally, however, we learn that stalls were provided for them in the cathedral. They 

 were boarded as well as taught. 'That those who come together and praise God together in choir may 

 also sit together and praise God together at table, we order that as well all ministers of the church 

 in the choir as the teacher of the grammar boys . . . the boys too learning music and grammar . . . 

 shall sit together and dine in a common hall.' The precentor presided at the high table, next in 

 rank came the headmaster, then the minor canons, just as at Winchester the headmaster ranked 

 next after the warden and before the fellows. At the second table came the deacon and sub- 

 deacon, named Epistoler and Gospeller, second master and lay clerks. At the third the grammar 

 boys and choristers. The choristers were therefore promoted in the social scale ; they no longer, as 

 did the almonry choristers, dined on the broken meats of the novices. The amount allowed for 

 commons was : headmaster and choirmaster, is. 6J. a week, under master is. zd. a week, boys, iod. 

 a week. Not only did the masters and eighteen scholars get board and lodging, but clothes also 

 for livery, the headmaster having 4 yards of cloth, the choirmaster 3 yards at gs. a yard, 

 the second master 3 yards at 41. 6d. a yard, and the boys, scholars and choristers, 2 yards and 

 a half at y. ^d. a yard. The stipends were jiO each for the headmaster and the choirmaster, the 

 canons getting 33 6s. 8</., and minor canons 10 each ; the second master 6 13*. $d. the same 

 as the Gospeller and lay clerks ; the grammar boys and choristers 3 6s. SJ. each. Leaving 

 exhibitions were provided in the Henrician foundation ; but in 1544 a new arrangement was made 

 by which the chapter surrendered to the king a part of its revenues, including Durham College and 

 its possessions, and was relieved of its University obligations. So that when the Marian statutes 

 were made this very important adjunct of a school had disappeared. 



Fortunately we are able to attach the new school of Henry VIII. quite definitely to the 

 old school of Langley. For according to a MS. of Bishop Cosin's, Henry Stafford, who was, as we 

 saw, the grammar schoolmaster of Langley's school, became the first headmaster of the new 

 Cathedral Grammar or King's School, and retained, as did all his successors, until a foolish attempt 

 was made by Bishop Cosin after the Restoration to deprive him of it, the house and salary and 

 schoolhouse of Langley's foundation. Robert Hartburn, the last master of the Almonry Grammar 

 School, became first second master of the same school, while John Brimley, the master of the choristers 

 of the Almonry, became the first choristers' master and organist of the cathedral church. Hartburn 

 appears to have succeeded Stafford in the headmastership. For the return of the Chantry 

 Commissioners, 8 made between 14 February and June 1546, states that 'the Chauntrie 

 of Our Lady and Saint Cuthbert was founded by one Thomas Langley, somtyme bishopp of 

 Durham, to fynde 2 priestes to pray for sowles, and also to kepe 2 free scooles, the one of gramer 

 and the other of songe, in the citie of Durham, for all maner of children that should repayre to the 

 said scooles,' and that the income was gross 20 13$. 4^., and net 15 Of. \d., 'whiche Robert 

 Hartburn and William Cockey, priestes, incumbents of the same, kepyng two scooles in maner and 

 form aforesaid, have yerely for their stipendes.' 



The Grammar School was in accordance with the Chantries Act continued by a warrant of 



the Chantry commissioners, Sir Walter Mildmay and Robert Keylway, appointed for that 



purpose. 8 Though the original warrant has disappeared, this appears from the payment by the 



Receiver General of the Northern Counties in 15489, under the heading 'Bishopric of Durham. 



Payments, stipends, and wages of schoolmasters.' Out of the lands and possessions belonging to 



the manor of Keverdley, in Lancashire, belonging to the possessions of the late monastery of Jarvax, 



In the yearly stipend or wages (salario) of Robert Hartburn and William Cokaye, masters of the 



Grammar School, founded by the late chantry of B.V.M. and St. Cuthbert in the cathedral church of 



Durham at 16 a year, and ij/. \d. to be distributed by them amongst the poor according to the 



foundation of the said late chantry, viz., in such allowance by virtue of a warrant of Walter Mildmay, 



knight, signed by his hand for a year anda half ending at Michaelmas in the third year of Edward VI. 2$. 



1 The consent of the bishop is a Marian interpolation. 

 * Sec my EngRih Sdxxil] at the Reformation, pt. ii. p. 60. P.R.O. Mins. Ace. 2-3 Edw. VI. No. 88, f. 44. 



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