The History of Education Part 92

[19] The terms _atheist_ and _atheism_ now arose, as the modern subst.i.tutes for excommunication and imprisonment, and during the next two centuries these were applied, by the churchmen of the time, to almost every prominent philosopher and scientist and independent thinker.

[20] Very severe measures were enacted to prevent the spread of the contagion of heresy. All Protestant literature was forbidden circulation in Catholic lands. The printing-press, as a disseminator of heresy, was placed under strict license. Certain books were ordered burned. Perhaps the most extreme and ruthless measure was the prohibition, under penalty of death, of the reading of the Bible. That this harsh act was carried out the record of martyrs shows. As one example may be mentioned the sister of the Flemish artist Matsys and her husband, he being decapitated and she buried alive in the square fronting the cathedral at Louvain, in 1543, for having been caught reading the sacred Book.

CHAPTER XIII

[1] Dr. Philip Schaff, the Church historian, says: "Schleiermacher reduced the whole difference between Romanism and Protestantism to the formula, 'Romanism makes the relation of the individual to Christ depend on his relation to the Church: Protestantism, _vice versa_, makes the relation of the individual to the Church depend on his relation to Christ.'" (Quoted by G. B. Adams, from a pamphlet, _Luther Symposiac_, Union Seminary, 1883.)

[2] The importance of writing before the days of printing can readily be appreciated. Just as the monk was carefully trained to copy ma.n.u.script, so the clerk for a city or a business house needed to be carefully trained to read and write. Writing formed a distinct profession, there being the "city writer" (city clerk, we say), Latin and vernacular secretaries, traveling writers, writing teachers, etc. Writing masters sometimes taught reading also, but usually not. In some French cities the guild of writing masters was granted an official monopoly of the privilege of teaching writing in the city.

[3] Reckoning schools were to meet direct commercial needs in the cities, and were seldom found outside of commercial towns. The arithmetic taught in the Latin schools as a part of the Seven Liberal Arts was largely theoretical; the arithmetic in the reckoning schools was practical. The work of the professional reckoner in time developed similarly to that of the professional writer, and often the two were combined in one person.

When employed by a city he was known as the city clerk. In 1482 the first reckoning book to be published in Germany appeared, filled with merchant's rules and applied problems in denominate numbers and exchange. See an interesting monograph by Jackson, L. L., _Sixteenth Century Arithmetic_ (Trs. College Pubs., No. 8, 1906).

[4] Luther tried to make a translation so simple that even the unlearned might profit by listening to its reading. To insure that his translation should be in a language that would be perfectly clear and natural to the common people, he went about asking questions of laborers, children, and mothers to secure good colloquial expressions. It sometimes took him weeks to secure the right word, but so satisfactory was the result that it fixed the standard for modern German, and still stands as the most conspicuous landmark in the history of the German language.

[5] The French version of this great original work represents the first use of French as a language for an argumentative treatise, and, as Calvin's work was more widely discussed than any other Protestant theological treatise, it did much to fix the character of this national language.

[6] "Tyndale's translation is not only the first which goes back to the original tongues, but it is so n.o.ble a translation in its mingled tenderness and majesty, its Saxon simplicity, and its smooth, beautiful diction that it has been but little improved on since. Every succeeding version is little more than a revision of Tyndale's." (J. Paterson Smyth, _How We Got Our Bible_.)

The following extract from Matthew is ill.u.s.trative: "O oure father which art in heven, halewed be thy name. Let thy kingdom come. Thy wyll be fulfilled, as well in erth, as. .h.i.t ys in heven. Geve vs this daye oure dayly breade. And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them whych treaspas vs. Lede vs nott in to temptacion, but delyvre vs from yvell. Amen."

[7] The most famous of Luther's German hymns, and one expressive of the Protestant spirit, is the one beginning:

"Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, "A mighty fortress is our G.o.d, Ein gute Wehr und Waffen." A bulwark never failing."

This hymn has often been called "The Ma.r.s.eillaise of the Reformation."

[8] The evolution, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the German vernacular school-teacher out of the parish s.e.xton is one of the interesting bits of our educational history.

[9] Magdeburg is typical, where the Lutherans united all the parish schools under the supervision of one pastor.

[10] Wittenberg, founded in 1502 as a new-learning university, and in which Luther, Melanchthon, and Bugenhagen were professors, was the first of the universities to become Protestant. Gradually the other universities in Protestant Germany threw off their allegiance to the Pope, and took on that of the ruling prince.

[11] The first Protestant university to be founded was Marburg, in Hesse, in 1527. When this later went over to Calvinism, a new university was founded at Giessen, in 1607, by a migration of the Lutheran professors.

Other Protestant universities founded were Konigsberg (1544) Jena (1555), Helmstadt (1576), and the free-city universities of Altdorf (1573), Stra.s.sburg (1621), Rinteln (1621), Duisberg (1655) and Kiel (1665). The support of these came, to a considerable extent, from old monastic or ecclesiastical foundations which had been dissolved after the Reformation.

[12] This was in response to a pet.i.tion to the King, nearly two years before. The King finally granted the request, "though maintaining that he was not compelled by G.o.d's Word to set forth the Scriptures in English, yet 'of his own liberality and goodness was and is pleased that his said loving subjects should have and read the same in convenient places and times.'" (Procter and Frere, _History of the Book of Common Prayer_, p.

30.)

[13] "The injunctions directed that 'a Bible of the largest volume in English' be set up in some convenient place in every church, where it might be read, only without noise, or disturbance of any public service, and without any disputation, or exposition." (_Ibid._, p. 30.)

[14] The right to read the Bible was later revoked, during the closing years of Henry VIII's reign (d. 1547), by an act of Parliament, in 1543, which provided that "no woman (unless she be a n.o.ble or gentle woman), no artificers, apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, under the degree of yeomen ... husbandmen, or laborers" should read or use any part of the Bible under pain of fines and imprisonment.

[15] These were, distributed by reigns, as follows:

Henry VIII (1509-1547) 63 schools Edward VI (1547-1553) 50 "

Mary (1553-1558) 19 "

Elizabeth (1558-1603) 138 "

James I (1603-1625) Charles I (1625-1649) 142 "

Protectorate (1649-1660) Charles II (1660-1685) James II (1685-1688) 146 "

CHAPTER XIV

[1] "These Calvinists had a common program of broad scope--not merely doctrinal, but also political, economic, and social. Their common program and their social ideals demanded education of all as instruments of Providence for church and commonwealth. Their industrious habits and productive economic life provided funds for education. Their representative inst.i.tutions in both church and commonwealth not only necessitated general diffusion of knowledge, but furnished the organization necessary for founding, supervising, and maintaining, in wholesome touch with the common man, both elementary and higher inst.i.tutions of learning. Their disciplined and responsive conscience, their consequent intensity of moral conviction and spirit of self- sacrifice for the common weal, compelled them to realize, in concrete and permanent form, their ideals of college and common school." (Foster, H.

D., In Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. i, p. 499.)

[2] In 1625 a list of the famous men of the city of Louvain, in Belgium, was printed. More than one fourth of those listed had studied in the colleges of Geneva.

[3] Foster, H. D., Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 491.

[4] In Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. I, p. 498.

[5] "That public schools abounded throughout the Netherlands is evident.

Every study of the archives of town or province discloses their presence.

The minutes of every religious body bear overwhelming testimony not only to the existence of schools, but also a zealous interest in their maintenance." (Kilpatrick, W. H., _Dutch Schools of New Netherlands_, p.

37.)

[6] For long the Church had had the Inquisition, but, while it had rendered loyal and iniquitous service, the results had been in no way commensurate with the bitter hatred which its work awakened.

Excommunication, persecution, imprisonment, the stake, and the sword had been tried extensively, but with only partial success. In education the reformers had shown the Church a new method, which was positive and effective and did not awaken opposition, and from the reformer's zeal for Latin grammar schools to provide an intelligent ministry the Church took its cue of establishing schools to train its future leaders. It was a long-headed and far-sighted plan, and its success was proportionately large.

[7] This is not true of their missions in foreign lands, where the mission priests usually gave elementary instruction. Elementary schools were maintained in the Jesuit missions of North and South America. Thus a mission school was established at Quebec as early as 1635, and one at Newtown, in Catholic Maryland, in 1640. After 1740 elementary parish schools were opened by the Jesuits among the German Catholics in Pennsylvania. From these beginnings Catholic parish schools have been developed in the United States.

[8] The Order was reestablished in 1814 and it has since been allowed to reestablish itself in most countries, though not in France or Germany.

There are 41 Jesuit colleges in America, in 21 states. (For list see Monroe's _Cyclopedia of Education_, vol. III, p. 540.) In the revision of its course of instruction, in 1832, modern studies were added, but the Society has never played any such conspicuous part in education since its reestablishment as it did during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

[9] It is an interesting speculation as to whether the fact that the Jesuits made such headway in German lands, and so deeply impressed their training on the children of the n.o.bility there, has had any connection with the att.i.tude of German and Austrian political leaders in their governmental and political policies since that time.

[10] By the middle of the eighteenth century the Jesuits had lost much of their former vigor, and their colleges their former large influence. They had become powerful and arrogant, mixed deeply in political intrigues, quarreled with any one who crossed their path, and refused to change their instruction to meet new intellectual needs. They were finally driven from France, Spain, Portugal, and German lands, and were ultimately abolished as an Order.

[11] The care with which the _Ratio Studiorum_ was worked out is typical of the thoroughness of the Order. A preliminary outline of work was followed for many years, the whole being experimental. Reports on it were made, and finally a preliminary Ratio was issued, in 1586. This was again revised and cast into final form, in 1599. In this form it remained until 1832, when some modern studies were added.

[12] Dabney, R. H., _The Causes of the French Revolution_, p. 203.

[13] For example, the "States-General" of France met four times during the seventeenth century, with weighty problems of religion and state for consideration, yet in three of the four meetings resolutions were pa.s.sed urging the clergy to establish schoolmasters in all the towns and villages, and a general system of compulsory education for all.

[14] _Les vrais Const.i.tutions des Religieuses de la Congregation de Nostre Dame_, chap. xi, sec. 6, 2d ed., Toul, 1694.

[15] See especially Felix Cadet, _Port-Royal Education_ (Scribners, New York, 1898), for translations of many of the brief pedagogical writings of members of the Order.

[16] Father Demia, at Lyons, had organized what was probably the first training-school for masters, in 1672. La Salle's training-school dates from 1684. Francke's German _Seminarium Praeceptorum_, at Halle, the first in German lands, dates from 1696.

[17] The numerous pictures of schools and educational literature well into the nineteenth century show the general prevalence of the individual method of instruction. It was the method in American schools until well toward the middle of the nineteenth century. To have graded the children and introduced cla.s.s instruction in 1684 was an important advance which the world has been slow in learning.

[18] Everything was according to rule, even the ferule, which must be made of two strips of leather, ten to twelve inches long, sewed together. All offenses, and the number and location of the blows for each, were specified. Later the corporal punishment was replaced by penances.

CHAPTER XV