SCHOOLS 



that the Hiegh Master shall be allowed at 

 his choise and owne appointment to take 

 . . . fourtyie schollers ... for his owne 

 advantage, conditionally that the said master 

 shall fynde one hable and lerned usher to 

 teach under hym at his owne charges.' The 

 school was, therefore, to be ' free ' only for 

 parishioners. 



Oddly enough the school hours were more 

 severe than Colet's. His were 7 to ii a.m. 

 and 1 to 5 p.m. all the year round. At St. 

 Saviour's, probably owing to the bishop 

 adopting the hours of Winchester College 

 (which was a boarding school), they were 

 6 to II a.m., and i to 6 p.m. in summer ; and 

 the same as at St. Paul's in the winter. But 

 while Colet said sternly, ' I will they have no 

 remedies,' and the master was to be fined 

 40^. if he gave one, at Southwark ' the master 

 shall not geve lycence to the scholers to 

 playe but ons in a weeke, which shalbe on 

 Tuesdaye or Thursdaye.' This again seems 

 derived from Winchester where Tuesdays 

 and Thursdays are still ' remedies ' in the 

 summer, and half remedies in winter. 



As to ' what shall be redde in the schole ' 

 a marked advance on Colet's statutes is to 

 be noted. Colet talked a great deal about 

 ' all Latin adulterate which ignorant blind 

 fools brought into the world,' being put 

 away and ' the very Roman tongue of TuUy 

 and Salust and Virgil and Terence ' used. 

 But his notion of clean Latin was authors 

 not even of the silver age, but of much baser 

 metal, whose very names are unknown to the 

 ' scholars ' of to-day. At Southwark the list 

 is Cicero, Terence, Ceaser (sic), Valerius 

 Maximus, Justinus, Erasmi Apothegmata, in 

 prose : ' Virgill, Horatius, Juvenall, Persius, 

 Ovide Metamorphoses ' in verse, and, in a tag 

 evidently borrowed from Colet, ' especially 

 and above all suche Christian poets asjuvencus, 

 Prudentius, Palengenius, ' with suche other.' 

 For religious instruction Erasmi ex Plutarcho, 

 ' Castalion upon the Scripture, Aesop and 

 Calvion's (Calvin's) Cathechisme in Latyn and 

 Greake, the New Testament in Greake.' 

 The boys were to go to church in ' the quire ' 

 on Sundays, holy days and other festival 

 days ' with their psalme bookes and bookes 

 of prayer,' and on Wednesdays and Fridays 

 ' in the Lente ' to be present ' at the Latynye 

 or common suffrages,' while on holy days ' the 

 best scholers shall versify upon a chapter of 

 the Newe Testament.' 



What follows represents St. Paul's custom. 

 ' Once every yeare, that is to saye in Septem- 

 ber, or after Bartholomew Eve,' the Wardens 

 were to invite men of learning and worship ' to 

 the Schole or Churche in St. Mary Overeys 



to examen the scholers, and ' when these 

 apposers be, the scholars shall have libertye 

 to playe twee dayes together for the better 

 cncoragynge them to theyre books.' The 

 vacations were from St. Thomas day, 21 

 December, to the morrow of the Epiphany, 

 7 January ; Shrove Monday and Tuesday ; 

 Wednesday before to the Monday week after 

 Easter ; and the week of Pentecost. But they 

 had holiday tasks. ' The younger scholers 

 shall exercyse their pen and learne to wright 

 in the schole,' while ' The elder sorte shall 

 at the same tyme make verses of the Nativitye 

 of our Saviour Jesus Christe, of his passion 

 and resurrection, and at Shroftyde of the 

 dysprayse of wine and drunkennes.' 



On 9 July 1569 the Vestry agreed that 

 ' Mr. Rowlye shall be amytted {sic) to be our 

 scolemaster in the steade of Mr. Ockland, 

 who hathe gyvyn us warnyng to departe.' 

 Mr. Ockland is no doubt the Christopher 

 Hockland mentioned in 1562 (p. 175), the 

 first High Master. 



Very soon after the charter endowments 

 began to come in. On 27 January 1563 Mar- 

 garet Bullen, widow, ' for the accomplish- 

 ment of her husband's mynd and good wyll 

 towards the maintenance of the Grammar 

 Scoole ' promised to pay 40^. before Christ- 

 mas. But the chief endowment came, oddly 

 enough, from the rival parish, and from a man 

 hitherto regarded as the founder of St. 

 Olave's School, Henry Leeke, a brewer, who 

 by will' of 12 March 1460 gave out of the 

 rents of tenements which he held in the pre- 

 cinct of St. Martin's-le-Grand from the 

 Dean and Chapter of Westminster, ;£20 a year, 

 out of which £8 a year was to go 



Towards the findinge and erection and mayn- 

 teynynge of a Free Schole in the paryshe of 

 Saincte Savyour in Southwarke. Provided 

 allwaies that if in the sayde parysshe of Saincte 

 Olave there be erected and sett up furnished 

 and kept one Free schole within the space of 

 two yeres from the date hereof, that then the 

 same £i willed and bequeathed to the schole 

 in the paryshe of Saincte Savyours in South- 

 warke, shalbe and remayne to the saide Free 

 Schole, so to bee erected and maynteyned in 

 the said parrysshe of Saincte Olave, during the 

 tyme aforesaid and not otherwise. Provided 

 allwaies that during so long tyme as the said 

 ^8 shalbe paid all the children and schollers 

 borne or dwellinge in the said parysshe of 

 Saincte Olave shall paie nothinge at the same 

 schole. 



» Wills P.C.C. 24 Mellershe, 12 March 1559-60. 

 Leeke is in several places in the St. Olave's Vestry 

 Book described as ' otherwise Hovile ' or fiowell. 

 Was Leek a nickname for a Welshman f 



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