The History of Education Part 32

157. Luther: Dignity and Importance of the Teacher's Work.

158. Luther: On the Duty of Compelling School Attendance.

159. Hamburg: An Example of a Lutheran _Kirchenordnung_.

160. Brieg: An Example of a Lutheran _Schuleordnung_.

161. Melanchthon: The Saxony School Plan.

162. Raumer: The School System Established in Wurtemberg.

163. Duke Ernest: The _Schulemethodus_ for Gotha.

164. Strype: The Supervision of a Teacher's Acts and Religious Beliefs in England.

(a) Letter of Queen's Council on.

(b) Dismissal of a Teacher for non-conformity.

165. Elizabeth: Penalties on Non-conforming Schoolmasters.

166. Statutes: English Act of Uniformity of 1662.

167. Carlisle: Oath of a Grammar School Master.

168. Strype: An English Elementary-School Teacher's License.

169. Cowper: Grammar School Statutes regarding Prayers.

170. Green: Effect of the Translation of the Bible into English.

171. Old MS.: Ignorance of the Monks at Canterbury and Messenden.

172. Parker: Refounding of the Cathedral School at Canterbury.

173. Nicholls: Origin of the English Poor-Law of 1601.

174. Statutes: The English Poor Law of 1601.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. From the selection from Rashdall (154), what do you infer as to the effect of the Reformation on the schools? What kind of schools does Rashdall describe as existing?

2. Contrast the vernacular style of the Bible (155) with the Ciceronian.

3. Characterize the three extracts (156-58) from Luther.

4. How advanced was the ground taken by Luther (158)? Would we accept the logic of his argument to-day?

5. Just what do the Hamburg (159) and Brieg (160) _Ordnungen_ indicate?

6. Compare Melanchthon's Saxony Plan (161) with Sturm's (137) and the French College de Guyenne (136), and grade the three in order of importance.

7. Show the close similarity of the Wurtemberg plan of 1559-65 (162) and a modern German state school system.

8. How advanced for the time was the work of Duke Ernest of Gotha (163)?

9. What kind of a school att.i.tude is indicated by the close supervision of English teachers, as described in 164 and 165?

10. What would be the natural effect on the teaching occupation of such legislation as the Act of Uniformity (166)?

11. Compare the form of license of an elementary teacher (168) with a modern form. What have we added and omitted?

12. What do the statutes regarding prayers (169) indicate as to the nature of the grammar schools of the time?

13. Characterize the educational importance of the translations of the Bible into the native tongues (170).

14. What are the marked features of the refounding act (172) for Canterbury cathedral school? What improvements are indicated?

15. State the steps in the development (173) of the English Poor-Law of 1601, just what the law provided for (174), and just what elements necessary to the creation of a state school system were incorporated into it.

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

* Adams, G. B. _Civilization during the Middle Ages_ Barnard, Henry. _German Teachers and Educators_.

Francke, Kuno. _Social Forces in German Literature_.

* Good, Harry E. "The Position of Luther upon Education," in _School and Society_, vol. 6, pp. 511-18 (Nov. 3, 1917).

* Montmorency, J. E. G. de. _State Intervention in English Education_.

* Montmorency, J. E. G. de. _The Progress of Education in England_.

Painter, F. V. N. _Luther on Education_.

Paulsen, Fr. _German Education_.

Richard, J. W. _Philipp Melanchthon, the Protestant Preceptor of Germany_.

Woodward, W. H. _Education during the Renaissance_.

CHAPTER XIV

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLTS

II. AMONG CALVINISTS AND CATHOLICS

3. _Educational work of the Calvinisms_

THE ORGANIZING WORK OF CALVIN. From the point of view of American educational history the most important developments in connection with the Reformation were those arising from Calvinism. While the Calvinistic faith was rather grim and forbidding, viewed from the modern standpoint, the Calvinists everywhere had a program for political, economic, and social progress which has left a deep impress on the history of mankind. This program demanded the education of all, and in the countries where Calvinism became dominant the leaders included general education in their scheme of religious, political, and social reform. [1] In the governmental program which Calvin drew up (1537) for the religious republic at Geneva (p. 298), he held that learning was "a public necessity to secure good political administration, sustain the Church unharmed, and maintain humanity among men."

In his plan for the schools of Geneva, published in 1538, he outlined a system of elementary education in the vernacular for all, which involved instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, religion, careful grammatical drill, and training for civil as well as for ecclesiastical leadership. In his plan of 1541 he upholds the principle, as had Luther, that "the liberal arts and good training are aids to a full knowledge of the Word."

This involved the organization of secondary schools, or _colleges_ as he called them, following the French nomenclature, to prepare leaders for the ministry and the civil government through "instruction in the languages and humane science." In the colleges (secondary schools) which he organized at Geneva and in neighboring places to give such training, and which became models of their kind which were widely copied, the usual humanistic curriculum was combined with intensive religious instruction.

These colleges became famous as inst.i.tutions from which learned men came forth. The course of study in the seven cla.s.ses of one of the Geneva colleges, which has been preserved for us, reveals the nature of the instruction (R. 175). The lowest cla.s.s began with the letters, reading was taught from a French-Latin Catechism, and the usual Latin authors were read. Greek was begun in the fourth cla.s.s, and, in addition to the usual Greek authors, the New Testament was read in Greek. In the higher cla.s.ses, as was common also in German _gymnasia_, logic and rhetoric were taught to prepare pupils to a.n.a.lyze, argue, and defend the faith. Elocution was also given much importance in the upper cla.s.ses as preparation for the ministry, two original orations being required each month. Psalms were sung, prayers offered, sermons preached and questioned on, and the Bible carefully studied. The men who went forth from the colleges of Geneva to teach and to preach the Calvinistic gospel were numbered by the hundreds.

[2]

Calvin's great educational work at Geneva has been well summarized by a recent writer, [3] as follows:

The strenuous moral training of the Genevese was an essential part of Calvin's work as an educator. All were trained to respect and obey laws, based upon Scripture, but enacted and enforced by representatives of the people, and without respect of persons. How fully the training of children, not merely in sound learning and doctrine, but also in manners, "good morals," and common sense was carried out is pictured in the delightful human _Colloquies_ of Calvin's old teacher, Corderius (once a teacher at the College of Guyenne, p. 269), whom he twice established at Geneva....

Calvin's memorials to the Genevan magistrates, his drafts for civil law and munic.i.p.al administration, his correspondence with reformers and statesmen, his epoch-making defense of interest taking, his growing tendency toward civil, religious, and economic liberty, his development of primary and university education, his intimate knowledge of the dialect and ways of thought of the common people of Geneva, and his broad understanding of European princes, diplomats, and politics mark him out as a great political, economic, and educational as well as a religious reformer, a constructive social genius capable of reorganizing and moulding the whole life of a people.

The world owes much to the constructive, statesman-like genius of Calvin and those who followed him, and we in America probably most of all. Geneva became a refuge for the persecuted Protestants from other lands, and through such influences the ideas of Calvin spread to the Huguenots in France, the Walloons of the Dutch and Belgian Netherlands, the Germans in the Palatinate, the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Puritans in England, and later to the American colonies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 98. A FRENCH SCHOOL OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (From an old woodcut by Abraham Bosse, 1611-78)]

CALVINISM IN THE OTHER LANDS. The great educational work done by the Calvinists in France, in the face of heavy persecution, deserves to be ranked with that of the Lutherans in Germany in its importance. Had the Calvinists had the same opportunity for free development the Lutherans had, and especially their state support, there can be little doubt that their work would have greatly exceeded the Lutherans in importance and influence on the future history of mankind. Beginning with one church in 1538, they had 2150 churches by 1561, when the severe persecutions and religious wars began.

True to the Calvinistic teaching of putting principles into practice, they organized an extensive system of schools, extending from elementary education for all, through secondary schools or colleges, up to eight Huguenot universities. As a people they were thrifty and capable of making great sacrifices to carry out their educational ideals. The education they provided was not only religious but civil; not only intellectual but moral, social, and economic. Education was for all, rich and poor alike.