These accounts we have given of the education of John of Salisbury, Alexander Neckham, and Thomas a Beckett are noteworthy. They show that education in the twelfth century was much more general, and much more advanced, than we usually think. The audiences, assembled at the school festivities, were able to understand, and thoroughly to appreciate dialectical disputations carried on in Latin. So too, we learn elsewhere, that when Giraldus Cambrensis was giving addresses, he was everywhere understood when he spoke in Latin. Taking these three accounts together, we are justified in distinguishing four stages of education during the twelfth century. I. The Grade of Elementary Instruction.--At this stage, the children would learn from the horn book and primer,[710] and would also commit certain psalms to memory. II. The Grammar Grade.--The object of the instruction at this stage would be to give the student a working knowledge of the Latin language. The chief grammars used were those of Donatus and Priscian; these would be supplemented by a study of various compilations of proverbs, fables, and dialogues, _e.g._ Cato's "Distichs." Song was studied concurrently with grammar. III. The Logic Grade.--This would be the study of the boys who had made satisfactory progress with grammar. It consisted of formal logic only. The writings of Boethius were the sources from which the early Middle Ages drew their knowledge of logic. IV. The University Grade.--This term we use to denote the advanced studies of the period, whether pursued at Paris or Oxford, or at any other famous centre of intellectual activity. The examples we have given, of the studies carried on by John of Salisbury and Alexander Neckham, will serve to illustrate the character of the work which was being done at this stage. In the thirteenth century the only educational reference which throws light on the school curriculum, outside the university of Oxford, which we have been able to trace, is an extract from the Chapter Act Book of Southwell Minster, which states that, in 1248, "non teneantur Scole de Grammatica vel Logica infra prebendas Canonicorum, nisi secundum consuetudinem Ebor."[711] This passage serves to illustrate the continued existence of the three grades of educational instruction we have enumerated. The statutes of Merton College, Oxford, which date from the thirteenth century, refer to the study of grammar, which is to be undertaken both by the scholars and the boys. The grammarian is to talk Latin with the boys whenever it shall be to their benefit, or he may talk to them in "idiomate vulgari" (_i.e._ French). The same chapter gives the studies of the scholars as consisting of "arts, philosophy, canon law, or theology."