depraved Style of the School-men. Cornelius Vitellius, an Italian, was the first who taught Greek in that University1; and from him the famous Grocyne learned the first Elements thereof. "In Cambridge, Erasmus was the first who taught the Greek Grammar. And so very low was the State of Learning in that University, that (as he tells a Friend) about the Year 1485, the Beginning of Hen. VII. Reign, there was nothing taught in that publick Seminary besides Alexander's Parva Logicalia, (as they called them) the old Axioms of Aristotle, and the Questions of John Scotus, till in Process of time good Letters were brought in, and some Knowledge of the Mathematicks; as also Aristotle in a new Dress, and some Skill in the Greek Tongue; and, by Degrees, a Multitude of Authors, whose Names before had not been heard of.2 "It is certain that even Erasmus himself did little understand Greek, when he came first into England, in 1497 (13 Hen. VII.), and that our Countryman Linacer taught it him, being just returned from Italy with great Skill in that Language: Which Linacer and William Grocyne were the two only Tutors that were able to teach it." Saml. Knight, Life of Dr John Colet, pp. 17, 18. The age at which boys went up to the University seems to have varied greatly. When Oxford students were forbidden to play marbles they could not have been very old. But in "The Mirror of the Periods of Man's Life" (ab. 1430 A.D.), in the Society's Hymns to the Virgin and Christ of this year, we find the going-up age put at twenty. Quod resoun, in age of .xx. 3eer, This is confirmed by young Paston's being at Eton at nineteen (see below, p. lvi). In 1612, Brinsley (Grammar Schoole, p. 307) puts the age at fifteen, and says, "such onely should be sent to the Vniuersities, who proue most ingenuous and towardly, and who, in a loue of learning, will begin to 1 Antea enim Cornelius Vitellius, homo Italus Corneli, quod est maritimum Hetruriæ Oppidum, natus nobili Prosapia, vir optimus gratiosusque, omnium primus Oxonii bonas literas docuerat. [Pol. Verg. lib. xxvi.] 2 Ante annos ferme triginta, nihil tradebatur in schola Cantabrigiensi, præter Alexandri Parva Logicalia, ut vocant, & retera illa Aristotelis dictata, Scoticasque Quæstiones. Progressu temporis accesserunt bonæ literæ ; accessit Matheseos Cognitio; accessit novus, aut certe novatus, Aristoteles; accessit Græcarum literarum peritia; accesserunt Autores tam multi, quorum olim ne nomina quidem tenebantur, &c. [Erasmi Epist. Henrico Bovillo, Dat. Roffe Cal. Sept. 1516.] 3 Sir John Fortescue's description of the study of law at Westminster and in the Inns of Chancery is in chapters 48-9 of his De laudibus legum Angliæ. take paines of themselues, hauing attained in some sort the former parts of learning; being good Grammarians at least, able to vnderstand, write and speake Latine in good sort. "Such as haue good discretion how to gouerne themselues there, and to moderate their expenses; which is seldome times before 15 yeeres of age; which is also the youngest age admitted by the statutes of the Vniuersity, as I take it." 4. Foreign University Education. That some of our nobles sent their sons to be educated in the French universities (whence they sometimes imported foreign vices into England') is witnessed by some verses in a Latin Poem "in MS. Digby, No. 4 (Bodleian Library) of the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century," printed by Mr Thomas Wright in his Anecdota Literaria, p. 38. Filii nobilium, dum sunt juniores, An English nation or set of students of the Faculty of Arts at Paris existed in 1169; after 1430 the name was changed to the German nation. Besides the students from the French provinces subject to the English, as Poictou, Guienne, &c., it included the English, Scottish, Irish, Poles, Germans, &c.-Encyc. Brit. John of Salisbury (born 1110) says that he was twelve years studying at Paris on his own account. Thomas a Becket, as a young man, studied at Paris. Giraldus Cambrensis (born 1147) went to Paris for education; so did Alexander Neckham (died 1227). Henry says, "The English, in particular, were so numerous, that they occupied several schools or colleges; and made so distinguished a figure by their genius and learning, as well as by their generous manner of living, that they attracted the notice of all strangers. This appears from the following verses, describing the behaviour of a stranger on 1 Mores habent barbarus, Latinus et Græcus; Et quia non metuunt animæ discrimen, his first arrival in Paris, composed by Negel Wircker, an English student there, A.D. 1170 :— The stranger dress'd, the city first surveys, A church he enters, to his God he prays. Next to the schools he hastens, each he views, Their manners, words, and looks, pronounce them wise. Theirs solid sense, with sparkling wit combin'd. Their graver studies jovial banquets crown, Their rankling cares in flowing bowls they drown.' Montpelier was another University whither Englishmen resorted, and is to be remembered by us if only for the memory of Andrew Borde, M.D., some bits of whose quaintness are in the notes to Russell in the present volume. Padua is to be noted for Pace's sake. He is supposed to have been born in 1482. Later, the custom of sending young noblemen and gentlemen to Italy to travel, not to take a degree-was introduced, and Ascham's condemnation of it, when no tutor accompanied the youths, is too well known to need quoting. The Italians' saying, Inglese Italianato è un diabolo incarnato, sums it up." 5. Monastic and Cathedral Schools. Herbert Losing, Bp. of Thetford, afterwards Norwich, between 1091 and 1119, in his 37th Letter restores his schools at Thetford to Dean Bund, and directs that no other schools be opened there. Tanner (Not. Mon. p. xx. ed. Nasmith), when mentioning "the use and advantage of these Religious houses "-under which term 1 Pixus et ablutus tandem progressus in urbem, Et quia subtiles sensu considerat Anglos, Moribus egregii, verbo vultuque venusti, Dona pluunt populis, et detestantur avaros, Fercula multiplicant, et sine lege bibunt. A. Wood, Antiq. Oxon., p. 55, in Henry's Hist. of Eng., vol. iii. p. 440-1. 2 That Colet used his travels abroad, A.D. 1493-7, for a different purpose, see his Life by Dr Knight, pp. 23-4. "are comprehended, cathedral and collegiate churches, abbies, priories, colleges, hospitals, preceptories (Knights Templars' houses), and frieries" says, "Secondly, They were schools of learning & education; for every convent had one person or more appointed for this purpose; and all the neighbours that desired it, might have their children taught grammar and church musick without any expence to them.' In the nunneries also young women were taught to work, and to read English, and sometimes Latin also. So that not only the lower rank of people, who could not pay for their learning, but most of the noblemen and gentlemen's daughters were educated in those places. 1 Fuller, book vi. p. 297. Collier, vol. ii. p. 165. Stillingfleet's Orig. Britan. p. 206. Bishop Lloyd of Church Government, p. 160. This was provided for as early as A.D. 747, by the seventh canon of council of Clovesho, as Wilkins's Councils, vol. i. p. 95. See also the notes upon that canon, in Johnson's Collection of canons, &c. In Tavistock abbey there was a Saxon school, as Willis, i. 171. Tanner. (Charlemagne in his Capitularies ordained that each Monastery should maintain a School, where should be taught la grammaire, le calcule, et la musique.' See Démogeot's Histoire de la Littérature Française, p. 44, ed. Hachette. R. Whiston.) Henry says "these teachers of the cathedral schools were called The scholastics of the diocess; and all the youth in it who were designed for the church, were intitled to the benefit of their instructions. Thus, for example, William de Monte, who had been a professor at Paris, and taught theology with so much reputation in the reign of Henry II., at Lincoln, was the scholastic of that cathedral. By the eighteenth canon of the third general council of Lateran, A.D. 1179, it was decreed, That such scholastics should be settled in all cathedrals, with sufficient revenues for their support; and that they should have authority to superintend all the schoolmasters of the diocess, and grant them licences, without which none should presume to teach. The laborious authors of the literary history of France have collected a very distinct account of the scholastics who presided in the principal cathedralschools of that kingdom in the twelfth century, among whom we meet with many of the most illustrious names for learning of that age. The sciences that were taught in these cathedral schools were such as were most necessary to qualify their pupils for performing the duties of the sacerdotal office, as Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Theology, and Church-Music.”—Ibid. p. 442. ..... 2 Fuller and Collier, as before; Bishop Burnet (Reform. vol. i. p. . .) saith so of Godstow. Archbishop Greenfield ordered that young gentlewomen who came to the nunneries either for piety or breeding, should wear white veils, to distinguish them from the professed, who wore black ones, 11 Kal. Jul. anno pontif. 6. M. Hutton. ex registr. ejus, p. 207. In the accounts of the cellaress of Carhow, near Norwich, there is an account of what was received "pro prehendationibus," or the board of young ladies and their servants for education "rec. de domina Margeria Wederly prehendinat, ibidem xi. septimanas xiii s. iv d. . . pro mensa unius famulæ dicta Margeriæ per iii. septimanas viii d. per sept." &c. Tanner. * Du Cange, Gloss. voc. Scholasticus. As Lydgate (born at Lydgate in Suffolk, six or seven miles from Newmarket) was ordained subdeacon in the Benedictine monastery of Bury St Edmunds in 1389', he was probably sent as a boy to a monastic school. At any rate, as he sketches his early escapadesapple-stealing, playing truant, &c.,-for us in his Testament2, I shall quote the youth's bit of the poem here :— Harleian MS. 2255, fol. 60. Duryng the tyme / of this sesoun ver I meene the sesoun / of my yeerys greene The gerisshe sesoun / straunge of condiciouns [fol. 60 b.]¶Voyd of resoun/yove to wilfulnesse In my boyhood, up to 15, I loved no work Sauf pley or merthe /straunge to spelle or reede but play, lihtly tournyng wylde / and seelde sad ¶ For litil wroth / to stryve with my felawe I hadde in custom / to come to scole late [fol. 61. To my bettre / did no reverence 1 Morley's English Writers, vol. ii. Pt. I. p. 421. yet I was afraid I came to school late, talked, lied to get off blame, and mocked my masters. 2 Edited by Mr Halliwell in his 'Selection from the Minor Poems of Dan John Lydgate.' Percy Society, 1840, quoted by Prof. Morley. strecched. (These collations are from Harl. 218, fol. 65, back.) 4 toke. 5 skoured. |