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
It is in this connection that we encounter one of the first disputes
relating to the question of monopoly. The question was this, if a new
church was established in a particular area, did the erection of this new
church diminish the educational rights of the parent church as well as its
spiritual rights? We may put the matter in another way by asking whether
the patron of a church possessed the power of alienating the monopoly of
school-keeping possessed by that church.
Roger, who became Earl of Warwick in 1123, apparently thought that the
patron did possess this right. He bestowed the right of holding schools in
Warwick upon the Collegiate Church of St. Mary's, thus alienating the
right from the Church of All Saints', Warwick, which had previously
possessed it. The authorities of All Saints' desired to protest against
this alienation and to preserve their rights. To what authority was this
appeal to go? No information is available of the whole course of the
struggle, but apparently the matter was ultimately referred to the king;
for we find that a deed was issued by Henry I. to the bishops of Worcester
and Gloucester, to Roger, Earl of Warwick, and to all the barons of
Warwickshire, stating the king's command that the Church of All Saints',
Warwick, was to retain the schools of Warwick as it had possessed them in
the reign of Edward the Confessor.[274]
This decision is a most important one. It is a recognition by the state of
the monopoly possessed by a particular church, and, in addition, it
establishes the principle that the enforcement of this monopoly was a
matter of temporal and not of spiritual jurisdiction.
Whether as the result of this decision or not we have now no means of
determining, but the fact remains that many churches seemed to have been
in doubt as to whether they possessed, or did not possess, this right of
monopoly of school keeping. To resolve this doubt, appeal seems to have
been made to the king, and a number of documents still exist which show
the decision that was arrived at. Thus Henry I. confirmed to St. Oswald's,
Gloucester, the monopoly of school-keeping in that city,[275] to the
priory of Huntingdon the monopoly of Huntingdonshire,[276] to the priory
of Dunstable the monopoly of schools in that town.[277] Even as late as
1446, there was a grant of the monopoly of school-keeping to Eton
College.[278]
The principle which seems to be established in these cases is that, when a
dispute arose as to the monopoly right of keeping school in a particular
area (apart from merely keeping an unlicensed school) the Crown alone
possessed the power of deciding the dispute, and that when it was desired
to establish an official school in any area, in addition to the existing
schools, it was necessary to obtain the consent of the Crown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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