SCHOOLS 



in the sacrist's register no doubt he acquiesced in 

 the abbot's claim and recognized the school- 

 master's jurisdiction. 



The jurisdiction of the master not only over 

 his scholars but over any cause between a scholar 

 and an outsider was recognized, as we have seen, 1 

 at St. Albans and at Canterbury in the fourteenth 

 century, and is still recognized in the Vice- 

 Chancellors' courts at Oxford and Cambridge as 

 between undergraduates and the public. 



A year or two later we get two interesting 

 documents in connexion with the grammar 

 schoolmaster's legal monopoly of teaching, -to the 

 exclusion of all other schoolmasters not licensed 

 by him ; a monopoly recognized as we have seen 

 at Thetford circa 1 1 14, in the case of the school- 

 master of St. Paul's School, London, in 1137 

 and 1446, in the case of the schoolmaster of the 

 High School, Winchester, in 1135, and of the 

 head master of Winchester College in 1630, and 

 at Canterbury, York, Lincoln and Beverley in 

 the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The 

 document runs : ' A. of B., Official of C.' (the 

 initials are again fictitious, the document being 

 entered as a precedent or common form) ' to the 

 discreet men constituted in such and such a place:' 



Whereas we understand that certain pedagogues,* 

 wrongly using the title of master, with sacrilegious dar- 

 ing usurping the jurisdiction of Sir C. of teaching, rashly 

 presume to teach school without his authority within 

 the liberty of Saint Edmund, keep adulterine schools, 3 

 pretending to teach dialecticians, grammarians, and 

 pupils of all kinds publicly assembled, without the 

 assent of Sir C. and against the will of the School- 

 master of S. Edmunds, to the prejudice of the church 

 and school of the same place, eluding the jurisdiction 

 of the apostolic see to the scandal and contempt of the 

 church and school (eccleste et scolarum) of St. Edmund. 



In most solemn form therefore 



to bridle these presumptuous persons' rash audacity 

 and in reverence to the most holy see and in con- 

 sideration of the most glorious King and Martyr 

 Edmund, and on pain of excommunication which we 

 hereby declare if you are disobedient, 



the Official directs the clergy he is addressing to 

 excommunicate the offending ' pedagogues, gram- 

 marians, and pupils meeting indiscriminately and 

 publicly,' and to go on doing it as long as the 

 master shall ask it. Further, they were publicly 

 to denounce the culprits as excommunicated with 

 candles burning and bells ringing during high mass 



until by satisfying Sir C. for their contempt and the 

 Master for their trespass they have earned the benefit 

 .of absolution in due form of law. 



1 V. C. H. Herts, ii. 



* The pedagogue was, strictly speaking, the slave 

 who took the Greek or Roman boys to school, not the 

 schoolmaster. 



3 Scholas [sic, the use of the ' h ' in the word at 

 this time is unique] infra libertatem Sancti Edmundi 

 regant adulterinas, dialecticos glomerellos seu discipulos 

 .quoscumque pupplice congregates indistincte dogmati- 

 zare fingentes.' 



Anyone disobeying was to be brought before 

 the Official in the chapel of St. John at the 

 Fount. 



A mandate in precisely similar terms, clearly 

 modelled on this, is given in Abbot Curteys' 

 Register as issuing from Clement Denston, 

 archdeacon of Sudbury, to the Dean of T. 

 (sic) in which for Dominus C. is substituted 

 Dominus William, Abbot, i.e. Abbot Curteys : 

 and for the chapel of St. John ad Fontem, the 

 church of Fornham. It is undated, but must be 

 between 1423 when Denston was made arch- 

 deacon, and 1434 when he was convicted of 

 divers adulteries and rape. 



On a later page another similar mandate is given 

 directed against a single individual named John 

 Harrison (/ilium Henrici) for presuming to keep 

 an adulterine school and teaching grammarians 

 (glomerellos) or other pupils (diidpulos) not as 

 doctor but rather as seductor (non ut doctor quin 

 potius seductor) against the privileges of the 

 monastery and school of St. Edmunds. He was 

 directed to desist within 8 days from his adul- 

 terine school so unlawfully held on pain of the 

 greater excommunication. 



The use of the word ' glomerellos,' small gram- 

 marians, as distinguished from the dialecticians, 

 the more advanced scholars who had passed on 

 to dialectics, or the art of argument, shows that 

 the school of Bury St. Edmunds was, as we should 

 say, of the first grade. The earlier rival school- 

 masters had even ventured to trespass to the 

 extent of dialectic ; the later one, John Harrison, 

 had only held probably a kind of preparatory 

 school which did not venture beyond grammar. 

 The word ' glomerelli ' is a curious and char- 

 acteristically mediaeval corruption of grammati- 

 culi. It was used at Cambridge, the master of 

 Glomery being the doyen or superintendent of 

 the grammar schools there. He is mentioned 

 ' n I 533~4- 4 Oddly enough the only use of the 

 word which has been found at Oxford is in 

 the accounts for the year 1277 of the grammar 

 school attached to Merton College, and remains 

 in MS. 8 It was in use at Salisbury in the 1 4th 

 century, 6 where the same house is described in a 

 deed of 1308 as scole glomerie, and in one of 

 1322 as scole gramaticales, thus establishing the 

 identity of meaning beyond doubt. 



Besides the grammar school there was a song 

 school, which was seemingly almost equally 

 ancient, and the master of which enjoyed a like 

 monopoly for teaching song and the psalter. 

 On Friday after St. Agatha's Day (5 February) 

 1290-1, the sacrist, William of Hoo, as arch- 

 deacon, issued 7 a mandate on behalf of it to 



4 Camb. Grace Book, A. 223. 



5 Merton MSS. 39641;. I am indebted to the 

 warden and fellows of Merton for the opportunity 

 of going through these accounts. 



6 Hist. MSS. Rtp. Misc. (1901), 343, 345. 

 1 Harl. MS. 645, fol. 6jb, (%6b, pencil). 



39 



