Education in England in the Middle Ages: Thesis Approved for the Degree of Doctor of Science in the University of LondonParry, Albert William
History
Education in England in the Middle Ages: Thesis Approved for the Degree of Doctor of Science in the University of London
Parry, Albert William
Education -- England -- History; Education, Medieval
Several similar instances may be quoted. Thus, about the close of the
twelfth century, the Archdeacon of Durham, of the time, provided an
endowment for the purpose of supplying three scholars of Durham School
with food and lodging at the almonry.[606] In 1262 Bishop Giles of
Salisbury founded a hostel in that city "for the perpetual reception and
maintenance of a warden, two chaplains and twenty poor, needy,
well-behaved and teachable scholars."[607] In 1364, Walter de Merton,
Chancellor of England, gave certain manors "for the perpetual maintenance
of twenty scholars living in the schools at Oxford or elsewhere."[608]
About 1387, Bishop Burghersh of Lincoln provided that the chantry founded
by him should maintain six poor boys who were "professing the art of
Grammar."
In addition to these models, there existed the models furnished by the
collegiate churches and the monasteries. The collegiate churches were
under the control of a dean or provost and a small number of officials;
generally speaking, a master of grammar was also attached to the Church.
These colleges were non-resident. The priests attached to the church lived
in their own homes. A monastery was presided over by an abbot or prior,
the monks were resident, and a small number of choir boys were also
attached.
It does not require any great stretch of the imagination to conceive of
William of Wykeham pondering over all these possibilities. In the end, the
monastic idea seems to have triumphed with this important distinction
that, for the adult monks, were substituted "scholares pauperes et
indigentes."
A study of an illustration of Winchester School serves to support this
conception. The most prominent feature of the college buildings was the
church. Divine worship was to be effectively rendered daily. Grouped round
the church were the cloisters and the chambers, the dwelling places for
the poor scholar clerks. The more closely the building is examined, the
more clearly is its relation to the monastic ideal realised.
The influence of the monastic ideal is even more evident in connection
with the foundation of Eton College, the second of our great public
schools in respect of date of origin. The foundation charter of this
school was sealed on October 11th, 1440. In this charter, Henry VI., the
founder of the college, who was then eighteen years of age, declared his
intention to establish a college[609] "in the honour and for the support
of our great and most holy mother in the parish church of Eton by Windsor,
which is not far removed from the place of our birth."[610]
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