Our Legal Heritage Part 78

Elizabeth had good judgment in selecting her ministers and advisors for her Privy Council, which was organized like Henry VIII's Privy Council.

The Queen's Privy Council of about twelve ministers handled foreign affairs, drafted official communiques, issued proclamations, supervised the county offices: the 1500 Justices of the Peace, chief constables, sheriffs, lord lieutenants, and the county militias. It fixed wages and prices in London, advised Justices of the Peace on wages elsewhere, and controlled exports of grain to keep prices down and supplies ample. It banned the eating of meat two days a week so that the fishing industry and port towns would prosper. When grain was scarce in 1596, Elizabeth made a proclamation against those ingrossers, forestallers, and ingraters of grain who increased its price by spreading false rumors that it was scarce because much of it was being exported, which was forbidden. There were labor strikes in some towns for higher wages after periods of inflation. In 1591, London authorities rounded up the st.u.r.dy vagabonds and set them to work cleaning out the city ditches for 4d. per day.

Elizabeth did not allow any gentleman to live in London purely for pleasure, but sent those not employed by the Court back to their country manors to take care of and feed the poor of their parishes. Her proclamation stated that "sundry persons of ability that had intended to save their charges by living privately in London or towns corporate, thereby leaving their hospitality and the relief of their poor neighbors, are charged not to break up their households; and all others that have of late time broken up their households to return to their houses again without delay." She never issued a license for more than 100 retainers. She was partially successful in stopping Justices of the Peace and sheriffs from wearing the liveries of great men. She continued the policy of Henry VII to replace the rule of force by the rule of law.

Service of the crown and influence at court became a better route to power and fortune than individual factions based on local power structures. At the lowest level, bribery became more effective than bullying. The qualities of the courtier, such as wit, and the lawyer became more fashionable than the qualities of the soldier.

Most of the men in Elizabeth's court had attended a university, such as Francis Bacon, son of the Lord Keeper, who became a writer, attorney, member of the Commons, and experimental philosopher; and Walter Ralegh, the writer and sea fighter, who had a humble origin. Many wives and daughters of Privy Councilors attended the Queen in her privy chamber.

Most of the knights or gentlemen of the royal household were also members of Parliament or Justices of the Peace for certain districts in the counties. Instead of the office of Chancellor, which was the highest legal office, Elizabeth appointed a man of common birth to be Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; she never made a Lord Keeper a peer. Elizabeth encouraged her lords to frankly make known their views to her, in public or in private, before she decided on a course of action. She had affectionate nicknames for her closest courtiers, and liked to make puns. The rooms of the Queen were arranged as they had been under Henry VIII: the great hall was the main dining room where the servants ate and which Elizabeth attended on high days and holidays; the great chamber was the main reception room, where her gentlemen and yeomen of the guard waited; the presence chamber was where she received important visitors; beyond lay her privy chamber and her bedchamber. She ate her meals in the privy chamber attended only by her ladies. She believed that a light supper was conducive to good health. The Lord Chamberlain attended the Queen's person and managed her privy chamber and her well-born grooms and yeomen and ladies-in-waiting. The Lord Steward managed the domestic servants below the stairs, from the Lord Treasurer to the cooks and grooms of the stable. The court did not travel as much as in the past, but became a.s.sociated with London. Elizabeth took her entire court on summer visits to the country houses of leading n.o.bility and gentry.

Courtiers adopted symbolic "devices" as statements of their reaction to life or events, e.g. a cupid firing arrows at a unicorn signified chast.i.ty under attack by s.e.xual desire. They carried them enameled on jewels, had them painted in the background of their portraits, and sometimes had them expressed on furniture, plate, buildings, or food.

The authority of the Queen was the authority of the state. Elizabeth's experience led her to believe that it was most important for a monarch to have justice, temperance, magnanimity, and judgment. She claimed that she never set one person before another, but upon just cause, and had never preferred anyone to office for the preferrer's sake, but only when she believed the person worthy and fit for the office. She never blamed those who did their best and never discharged anyone form office except for cause. Further, she had never been partial or prejudiced nor had listened to any person contrary to law to pervert her verdicts. She never credited a tale that was first told to her and never corrupted her judgment with a censure before she had heard the cause. She did not think that the glory of the t.i.tle of monarch made all she did lawful. To her, clemency was as eminent in supreme authority as justice and severity.

Secular education and especially the profession of law was now the route for an able but poor person to rise to power, rather than as formerly through military service or through the church.

The first stage of education was primary education, which was devoted to learning to read and write in English. This was carried out at endowed schools or at home by one's mother or a tutor. The children of the gentry were usually taught in their homes by private teachers of small cla.s.ses. Many of the poor became literate enough to read the Bible and to write letters. However, most agricultural workers and laborers remained illiterate. They signed with an "x", which represented the Christian cross and signified its solemnity. Children of the poor were expected to work from the age of 6 or 7.

The next stage of education was grammar [secondary] school or a private tutor. A student was taught rhetoric (e.g. poetry, history, precepts of rhetoric, and cla.s.sical oratory), some logic, and Latin and Greek grammar. English grammar was learned through Latin grammar and English style through translation from Latin. As a result, they wrote English in a Latin style. Literary criticism was learned through rhetoric. There were disputations on philosophical questions such as how many angels could sit on a pin's point, and at some schools, orations. The students sat in groups around the hall for their lessons. The boys and some girls were also taught hawking, hunting and archery. There were no playgrounds. The grammar student and the undergraduate were tested for proficiency by written themes and oral disputations, both in Latin. The middle cla.s.ses from the squire to the petty tradesman were brought into contact with the works of the best Greek and Roman writers. The best schools and many others had the students read Cicero - the "De Officiis", the epistles and orations; and some of Ovid, Terence, Sall.u.s.t, Virgil, some medieval Latin works, the "Distichs" of Cato, and sometimes Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. The students also had to repeat prayers, recite the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and to memorize catechisms. Because the students came from the various social cla.s.ses such as gentlemen, parsons, yeomen, mercers, and masons, they learned to be on friendly and natural terms with other cla.s.ses. A typical school-day lasted from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. There were so many grammar schools founded and financed by merchants and guilds such as the Mercers and Fishmongers that every incorporated town had at least one.

Grammar schools were headed by schoolmasters, who were licensed by the bishop and paid by the town. Flogging with a birch rod was used for discipline. However, the grammar schools did not become the breeding grounds for humanist ideas because the sovereigns were faced with religious atomism and political unrest, so used the grammar schools to maintain public order and achieve political and religious conformity.

Many grammar schools had preparatory cla.s.ses called "petties" for boys and girls who could not read and write to learn to do so. The girls did not usually stay beyond the age of nine. This was done by a schoolmaster's a.s.sistant, a parish clerk, or some older boys.

Some founders of grammar schools linked their schools with particular colleges in the universities following the example of Winchester being a.s.sociated with New College, Oxford; and Eton with King's College, Cambridge. The new charter of Westminster in 1560 a.s.sociated the school with Christ Church, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge.

The government of Oxford University, which had been Catholic, was taken from the resident teachers and put into the hands of the Vice-Chancellor, Doctors, Heads of Colleges, and Proctors. Cambridge already had a strong reformed element from Erasmus' influence. Oxford University and Cambridge University were incorporated to have a perpetual existence for the virtuous education of youth and maintenance of good literature. The Chancellors, masters, and scholars had a common seal. Oxford was authorized to and did acquire its own printing press.

Undergraduate students entered about age 16 and resided in rooms in colleges rather than in scattered lodgings. The graduate fellows of the college who were M.A.s of under three years standing had the responsibility, instead of the university, for teaching the undergraduates. This led many to regard their fellowship as a position for life rather than until they completed their post-graduate studies.

But they were still required to resign on marrying or taking up an ecclesiastical benefice. The undergraduates were fee-paying members of the college or poor scholars. Some of the fee-paying members or gentlemen-commoners or fellow-commoners were the sons of the n.o.bility and gentry and even shared the fellows' table. The undergraduate students were required to have a particular tutors, who were responsible for their moral behavior as well as their academic studies. It was through the tutors that modern studies fit for the education of a Renaissance gentleman became the norm. Those students not seeking a degree could devise their own courses of study with their tutors?

permission. Less than about 40% stayed long enough to get a degree. Many students who were working on the seven year program for a Master's Degree went out of residence at college after the four year's "bachelor"

course. Students had text books to read rather than simply listening to a teacher read books to them.

In addition to the lecturing of the M.A.s and the endowed university lectureships, the university held exercises every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in which the student was meant through disputation, to apply the formal precepts in logic and rhetoric to the practical business of public speaking and debate. Final examinations were still by disputation. The students came to learn to read Latin easily. Students acted in Latin plays. If a student went to a tavern, he could be flogged. For too elaborate clothing, he could be fined. Fines for absence from cla.s.s were imposed. However, from this time until 1945, a young man's university days were regarded as a period for the "sowing of wild oats".

All students had to reside in a college or hall, subscribe to the 39 articles of the university, the Queen's supremacy, and the prayer book.

Meals were taken together in the college halls. The universities were divided into three tables: a fellows' table of earls, barons, gentlemen, and doctors; a second table of masters of arts, bachelors, and eminent citizens, and a third table of people of low condition. Professors, doctors, masters of arts and students were all distinguishable by their gowns.

Undergraduate education was considered to be for the purpose of good living as well as good learning. It was to affect the body, mind, manners, sentiment, and business, instead of just leading to becoming a better disputant. The emphasis on manners came mostly from an Italian influence. The university curriculum included Latin and Greek languages and was for four years. The student spent at least one year on logic (syllogizing, induction, deduction, fallacies, and the application of logic to other studies), at least one year on rhetoric, and at least one year on philosophy. The latter included physics, metaphysics, history, law, moral and political philosophy, modern languages, and ethics (domestic principles of government, military history, diplomatic history, and public principles of government), and mathematics (arithmetic, geometry, algebra, music, optics, astronomy). The astronomy taught was that of Ptolemy, whose view was that the celestial bodies revolved around a spherical earth, on which he had laid out lines of longitude and lat.i.tude. There were lectures on Greek and Latin literature, including Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero. There were no courses on English history in the universities.

About 1564, the curriculum was changed to two terms of grammar, four terms of rhetoric, five terms of dialectic (examining ideas and opinions logically, e.g. ascertaining truth by a.n.a.lyzing words in their context and equivocations), three terms of arithmetic, and two terms of music.

There were now negative numbers, irrational numbers such as square roots of non-integers, and imaginary numbers such as square roots of negative numbers. The circ.u.mference and area of a circle could be computed from its radius, and the Pythagorean theorem related the three sides of a right triangle. Also available were astrology, alchemy (making various substances such as acids and alcohols), cultivation of gardens, and breeding of stock, especially dogs and horses. Astronomy, geometry, natural and moral philosophy, and metaphysics were necessary for a master's degree. The university libraries of theological ma.n.u.scripts in Latin were supplemented with many non-religious books.

There were graduate studies in theology, medicine, music, and law, which was a merging of civil and canon law together with preparatory work for studying common law at the Inns of Court in London.

In London, legal training was given at the four Inns of Court. Students were called to dinner by a horn. Only young gentry were admitted there.

A year's residence there after university gave a gentleman's son enough law to decide disputes of tenants on family estates or to act as Justice of the Peace in his home county. A full legal education gave him the ability to handle all family legal matters, including property matters.

Many later became Justices of the Peace or members of Parliament.

Students spent two years in the clerks' commons, and two in the masters'

commons. Besides reading textbooks in Latin, the students observed at court and did work for practicing attorneys. After about four more years' apprenticeship, a student could be called to the outer bar. There was a real bar of iron or wood separating the justices from the attorneys and litigants. As "Utter Barrister" or attorney, he would swear to "do no falsehood in the court, increase no fees but be contented with the old fees accustomed, delay no man for lucre or malice, but use myself in the office of an Attorney within the Court according to my learning and discretion, so help me G.o.d, Amen". Students often also studied and attended lectures on astronomy, geography, history, mathematics, theology, music, navigation, foreign languages, and lectures on anatomy and medicine sponsored by the College of Physicians. A tour of the continent became a part of every gentleman's education. After about eight years' experience, attorneys could become Readers, who gave lecturess; or Benchers, who made the rules. Benchers, who were elected by other Benchers, were entrusted with the government of their Inn of Court, and usually were King's counsel. Five to ten years later, a few of these were picked by the Queen for Serjeant at Law, and therefore eligible to plead at the bar of common pleas.

Justices were chosen from the Serjeants at Law.

Gresham left the Royal exchange to the city and the Mercer's Company on condition that they use some of its profits to appoint and pay seven lecturers in law, rhetoric, divinity, music, physics, geometry, and astronomy to teach at his mansion, which was called Gresham College.

They were installed in 1598 according to his Will. Their lectures were free, open to all, and often in English. They embraced mathematics and new scientific ideas and emphasized their practical applications. A tradition of research and teaching was established in mathematics and astronomy.

There were language schools teaching French, Italian, and Spanish to the aspiring merchant and to gentlemen's sons and daughters.

Many people kept diaries. Letter writing was frequent at court. Most forms of English literature were now available in print. Many ladies read aloud to each other in reading circles and to their households.

Some wrote poetry and did translations. Correctness of spelling was beginning to be developed. Printers tended to standardize it. There was much reading of romances, jest books, histories, plays, prayer collections, and encyclopedias, as well as the Bible. In schools and gentry households, favorite reading was Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queen"

about moral virtues and the faults and errors which beset them; Erasmus'

New Testament, "Paraphrases", "Colloquies", and "Adages"; Sir Thomas North's edition of Plutarch's "Lives of the n.o.ble Grecians and Romans"; Elyot's "The Book Named the Governor"; and Hoby's translation of "The Courtier". Gentlemen read books on the ideals of gentlemanly conduct, such as "Inst.i.tucion of a Gentleman" (1555), and Laurence Humphrey's "The n.o.bles: or of n.o.bilites". Francis Bacon's "Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral" were popular for their wisdom. In them he commented on many subjects from marriage to atheism. He cautioned against unworthy authority, ma.s.s opinion, custom, and ostentation of apparent wisdom. He urged the use of words with their correct meaning.

At a more popular level were Caxton's "The Golden Legend", Baldwin's "Mirror for Magistrates", Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" about English Protestant who suffered at the stake, sensational stories and pamphlets, printed sermons (including those of Switzerland's Calvin), chronicles, travel books, almanacs, herbals, and medical works. English fiction began and was read. There were some books for children. Books were copyrighted, although non-gentlemen writers needed a patron. At the lowest level of literacy were ballads. Next to sermons, the printing press was kept busiest with rhymed ballads about current events. Printed broadsheets on political issues could be distributed quickly. In London, news was brought to the Governor of the News Staple, who cla.s.sified it as authentic, apocryphal, barber's news, tailor's news, etc. and stamped it. Books were also censored for matter against the state church. This was carried out through the Stationers' Company. This company was now, by charter, the official authority over the entire book trade, with almost sole rights of printing. (Schools had rights of printing). It could burn other books and imprison their printers.