Life in a mediæval city : $b illustrated by York in the XVth centuryBenson, Edwin
History
Life in a mediæval city : $b illustrated by York in the XVth century
Benson, Edwin
York (England) -- History; York (England) -- Social life and customs
When very popular religious men died, or when, if they were already
dead as in the case of William, Archbishop of York (who died in 1153
and was canonised in 1227), popularity sprang up, it was quite usual
for it to be discovered that miracles were being wrought at their
tombs. The case of the popular Archbishop Scrape who was executed is a
typical one. In this way the calendar of saints was enlarged, the
devout had a new interest, the Church maintained its position in the
popular eye and mind, and its funds increased.
The mediæval Church, however, appeared perhaps at its best in its
Church services, which drew their effect from the sanctity of the
magnificent building (whether cathedral or parish church), the awe
inspired by the Church politic, the use of Latin and the learned
atmosphere, the religious teaching, and, not least, the imposing
ceremonies, and the ornate ritual performed amid a profusion of
lighted wax candles by priests and dignitaries in resplendent
vestments.
E. EDUCATION
The only school engaged in higher education in York in the century was
St. Peter's School, a very old foundation, where Alcuin, who (in 782)
had carried educational reform to the land of the Franks, had been
master. At this school, which was attached to the cathedral, were
educated those who were to spend their lives in scholarship,
especially, as now, after residence at Oxford or Cambridge; future
priests and clerks; the sons of the nobility and of the more wealthy
members of the merchant class in the city. Other regular schools were
the Grammar School at the royal Hospital of St. Leonard and the one at
Fossgate Hospital. This educational work was one of the most valuable
kinds of public work done by these hospitals.
A more elementary and less well organised education was given by the
parish priests and the chantry priests, from whom the children of the
city generally, boys and girls, received at least oral instruction.
Girls usually received a practical upbringing at home. The only
schools for girls were those attached to women's monasteries, of which
there was St. Clement's Nunnery alone in York.
Educational welfare work, as distinct from direct and organised
class-teaching, was carried on by the friars, the religious men who
lived under a rule but who went out to work in the world, instead of
spending their lives in seclusion as the monks did. The Dominican and
Franciscan Friars played an important part in education by teaching,
especially at the Universities. Education was also a foremost interest
of the Augustinians, who supported a college at Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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