Ever since the first coming of Christianity into the country Wales had had its schools. {219} In an earlier chapter we dwelt upon differences between the Celtic Church and that of Rome; and one of the most conspicuous of these differences was its greater insistence upon the value of culture and knowledge. There were Grammar Schools in Wales in the sixth century, just a hundred years before the establishment by Augustine of the first English school at Canterbury. In the turbulent times of the Middle Ages these schools deteriorated sadly; still the lamp of learning was never wholly extinguished. Such as they were, the mediæval schools were connected with the monasteries, and with the dissolution of those foundations they too ceased to exist. A few Welshmen were always to be found at Oxford, and we have seen how they flocked back to their native land to participate in the rising of Glyndwr. The Tudor union of the two nations made intercourse much more easy; and, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the number of Welsh students at the old Universities greatly increased. They were further encouraged by the establishment of Jesus College, Oxford, a wholly Welsh foundation. But it is needless to say that it was only the sons of the gentry, and young men about to enter upon an {220} ecclesiastical career, who were able to avail themselves of these advantages. The great bulk of the middle class, and the whole of the lower classes, remained without any sort of direct education. The Reformation period witnessed the founding of many new Grammar Schools, both in England and Wales. The new Established Church prided itself upon the possession of "sound learning"; and the schools were under its auspices. But these schools were all in the towns; and the instruction given in them was entirely in English, and by teachers who knew not a word of Welsh. The country districts remained untaught, as too did the vast majority of the people who, knowing no English, were unable to profit by the new schools. Good people in London seemed to have felt an occasional qualm at the thought of the ignorance which prevailed across the Welsh border. For example, we hear of Oliver Cromwell and Richard Baxter playing with the idea of a Welsh University. In the last years of the seventeenth century an effort was made to provide Welsh children with instruction in the English language, and to circulate the Bible, the Prayer Book, {221} and certain other books in Welsh. Archbishop Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Thomas Gouge, and James Owen founded a society for that purpose; and it was so far successful that about a thousand poor Welsh children were taught every year. In 1701 the work of the society was taken over by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. Lending libraries were formed, charity schools established, and much good work done. All these efforts, however, were eclipsed by the famous "Circulating Schools" of the Rev. Griffith Jones.