SCHOOLS 



THE REFOUNDATION OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, GLOUCESTER 



If the old school had ceased, in 1535, which is very doubtful, its cessa- 

 tion was of no long duration. For on 3 September, 1541, the abbey of 

 St. Peter, surrendered on 2 January, 1540, was refounded as the ' cathedral 

 church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity ' of the see of Gloucester, with a 

 school as part of it. The king, 



affecting from the bottom of his soul nothing more than that true religion and the true 

 worship of God should not only not be abolished there but rather be restored in its integrity 

 and reformed to its former rule with double sincerity, correcting the enormities into which 

 the life and professions of the monks had through lapse of time deplorably lapsed, laboured 

 . . . that for the future the muniments of sacred eloquence may be purely administered, 

 and good morals be sincerely observed, that the youth may be freely instituted in letters and 

 old age when shorn of its strength be worthily nurtured with necessaries, and lastly that the 

 largesses of alms to Christ's poor, repair of roads and bridges and all other duties of every 

 kind of charity be there performed, and spread thence far and wide ; and considering that 

 the site of the monastery, in which were many splendid monuments of his illustrious pro- 

 genitors, kings of England, there buried was a place fit, proper, and necessary for a bishop's seat, 



he founded the bishopric and gave the bishop the Leaden Hall and the abbot's 

 lodgings, and established the chapter to consist of a dean, the archdeacon of 

 Gloucester, and six canons, and gave them the church and precincts. By 

 another deed of the following day the dean and chapter were granted for 

 endowment the possessions of the dissolved monastery. 



The bishop, dean, and first 'prebendal priests' were named in the 

 foundation deed. There seems to be no trace left of the parcelling out of 

 the monastic buildings among the prebendaries and other ministers of the 

 church for their houses, usually done by a royal commission by a formal 

 deed of assignment. There is, therefore, no direct evidence of any allotment 

 of a schoolhouse and masters' houses, for the grammar school, which in all 

 the newly established cathedrals, except Winchester, formed an integral and 

 important part of the new foundation. 



At Gloucester the newly reinstated school first appears in the statutes 

 which were promulgated on 5 July, 1544, by a commission consisting of 

 Nicholas Heath, bishop of Worcester, George Day, bishop of Chichester, 

 and Richard Cox, archdeacon of Ely and former head master of Eton. 



The statutes were in general word for word the same as the statutes 

 for other cathedrals of the new foundation, varying only in respect of the 

 number and remuneration of the staff provided. Chapter 25 provides for 

 the school : 



Of the schoolmasters. That piety and good learning may always give out shoots, 

 grow and flower in our church to the glory of God and the use and ornament of the 

 commonwealth we decree and ordain that by the Dean, or in his absence the Subdcan, one 

 be chosen who is learned in Greek and Latin, of good character and of godly life, with a 

 faculty for teaching, who may train up in piety and good learning those children who shall 

 resort to our school to learn grammar. And let him have the first charge (primal obtineai) 

 and be Headmaster or Principal Teacher (Archididaicalus she fraecifuus Informator). Another 

 well skilled in the Latin tongue and who hath a good faculty in teaching . . . shall in- 

 struct the youths under the headmaster in the first rudiments of Grammar, and shall 

 therefore be called the undermaster or Second Teacher (Hipodidatcalus live lecundarius 

 Informator). 



The masters were to obey * those rules and orders which the dean, or 

 in his absence the subdean, and chapter shall think fit to prescribe unto 

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