"Founded by the parishenours there upon theyr Devocion." It was the purpose of this chantry that the priest appointed should assist the incumbent "in his necessitie"; apparently this assistance included the teaching of "many pore mens chylderne."[483] WRAGBY. "There is no foundacion of the same but certen landes and tenementes purchased by the parishioners to th'entente ... to teach chyldren in the saide paroche."[484] TRURO. "Of the Benyvolence of the Mayer and burges of the saide Towne to fynde a preste for ever to mynyster in the parish churche and to kepe a scole there."[485] As we have stated, these instances we have quoted cannot claim to be exhaustive. They are examples which are available, and they serve to indicate the noteworthy fact that a consciousness of the value of education existed among the inhabitants of many towns and villages in England in the Middle Ages. The question is sometimes raised, whether these schools were elementary or secondary schools, or whether some of them might be classed as elementary and others as secondary.[486] The question is quite irrelevant. The distinction between elementary and secondary education is entirely a modern one. In fact, it is difficult, even now, to determine the meaning of these terms. If we regard the elementary school as one in which the chief academic aim is to teach the children to read and write English, and to work elementary problems in arithmetic, and a secondary school as one in which the classical languages form an important part of the curriculum, then we have set out the difference between two types of schools which were prevalent during the greater part of the eighteenth and nineteenth century; but this distinction is inapplicable to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The chantry school did not attempt to teach English, but Latin, as Latin still continued to be the language of the Church of this country. Of the 259 instances of chantry schools which Mr. Leach has collected, 193 of them he regards as grammar schools; the remaining schools he classes either as song schools or as elementary schools.[487] The distinction is quite unnecessary. The chantry schools were simply the parochial church schools, which were now supported by a separate endowment, and taught by a priest who was practically able to devote his whole time to the work, instead of being under the control of the parish priest who, in many cases, would scarcely be able to set aside a definite part of each day for the work of teaching.