A new subject began to win a place in the school curriculum towards the close of the fifteenth century--the study of the Scrivener's art, or the art of writing. We have already dealt with this subject in previous chapters.[738] Here it may suffice to set forth the reason which Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, gave for introducing the subject into his Foundation of Rotherham College in 1483:--[739] "Tercio que, quia multos luce et ingenii acumine preditos juvenes profert terra illa, neque omnes volunt sacerdotii dignitatem et altitudinem attingere, ut tales ad artes mechanicas et alia mundi Concernia magis habilitentur, ordinavimus tercium socium, in arte scribendi et computandi scientem et peritum." CHAPTER IX. THE PROGRESS OF EDUCATION. In reviewing the educational progress which our country has made during the later Middle Ages, our starting point must be the consideration of the ideals which at various times dominated education, and created a supply of, and a demand for, facilities for education. The ideal behind the schools first established in this country was essentially religious. The early missionaries clearly realised that the Christian religion could not exist side by side with ignorance. It was necessary that provision should be made to enable converts effectively to participate in the divine service offered by the church; it was imperative that Latin should be taught to those who wished properly to understand the teaching of the church and to those who were desirous of being admitted to office in the church. Latin was the native language of the Christian missionaries; the services of the church were conducted in that tongue; and medieval ecclesiastical literature was written in the Latin language. More than this, Latin was the universal language of the civilised world of the time and, it must be remembered, there was no standard language in this country which could act as a substitute. It was in response to this ideal of the Church, the ideal which required that facilities for religious education should be within the reach of all, that the Church set herself to see that in every parish, in every town, in every city, a school should be found. The progress of the Christian religion entailed a progress in morality. Progress in morality necessarily involved progress in civilisation. With the growth of civilisation, there developed gradually an interest in the things of the mind as well as the things of the body. Thus it came about that education began to possess a value for its own sake, apart from its service in connection with religious progress.