Chapter XIII: Preface: TO RUSSELL’S BOKE OF NURTURE, and the Poems and (2)

Of the course of study of ‘well-bred youths’ in the early years of Elizabeth’s reign we have an interesting account by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, father of the great Bacon, in a Paper by Mr J. Payne Collier in the _Archæologia_, vol. 36, Part 2, p. 339, Article xxxi.[33] “Before he became Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon had been Attorney of that Court” [the Court of Wards and Liveries] “a most lucrative appointment; and on the 27th May, 1561, he addressed a letter to Sir William Cecil, then recently (Jan., 1561) made Master of the Wards, followed by a paper thus entitled:--’Articles devised for the bringing up in vertue and learning of the Queenes Majesties Wardes, being heires males, and whose landes, descending in possession and coming to the Queenes Majestie, shall amount to the cleere yearly value of c. markes, or above.’” Sir Nicholas asks the new Master of Wards to reform what he justly calls most “preposterous” abuses in the department:--“That the proceeding hath bin preposterous, appeareth by this: the chiefe thinge, and most of price, in wardeship, is the wardes mynde; the next to that, his bodie; the last and meanest, his land. Nowe, hitherto the chiefe care of governaunce hath bin to the land, being the meaneste; and to the bodie, being the better, very small; but to the mynde, being the best, none at all, which methinkes is playnely to sett the carte before the horse” (p. 343). Mr Collier then summarises Bacon’s Articles for the bringing up of the Wards thus: “The wards are to attend divine service at six in the morning: nothing is said about breakfast,[34] but they are to study Latin until eleven; to dine between 11 and 12; to study with the music-master from 12 till 2; from 2 to 3 they are to be with the French master; and from 3 to 5 with the Latin and Greek masters. At 5 they are to go to evening prayers; then they are to sup; to be allowed honest pastimes till 8; and, last of all, before they go to bed at 9, they are again to apply themselves to music under the instruction of the master. At and after the age of 16 they were to attend lectures upon temporal and civil law, as well as _de disciplinâ militari_. It is not necessary to insert farther details; but what I have stated will serve to show how well-bred youths of that period were usually brought up, and how disgracefully the duty of education as regards wards was neglected.... It may appear singular that in these articles drawn up by Sir Nicholas, so much stress is laid upon instruction in music[35]; but it only serves to confirm the notion that the science was then most industriously cultivated by nearly every class of society.” Pace in 1517 requires that every one should study it, but should join with it some other study, as Astrology or Astronomy. He says also that the greatest part of the art had perished by men’s negligence; “For all that our musicians do now-a-days, is almost trivial if compared with what the old ones (_antiqui_) did, so that now hardly one or two (_unus aut alter_) can be found who know what harmony is, though the word is always on their tongue.” (_De Fructu_, p. 54-5.) Ascham, while lamenting in 1545 (_Toxophilus_, p. 29) ‘that the laudable custom of England to teach children their plain song and prick-song’ is ‘so decayed throughout all the realm as it is,’ denounces the great practise of instrumental music by older students: “the minstrelsy of lutes, pipes, harps, and all other that standeth by such nice, fine, minikin fingering, (such as the most part of scholars whom I know use, if they use any,) is far more fit, for the womanishness of it, to dwell in the Court among ladies, than for any great thing in it which should help good and sad study, to abide in the University among scholars.”

[Headnote: NEGLECT OF EDUCATION BY MOTHERS.]

By 1577 our rich people, according to Harrison, attended properly to the education of their children. After speaking “of our women, whose beautie commonlie exceedeth the fairest of those of the maine,” he says:

“This neuerthelesse I vtterlie mislike in the poorer sort of them,
for the wealthier doo sildome offend herein: that being of
themselues without competent wit, they are so carelesse in the
education of their children (wherein their husbands also are to be
blamed,) by means whereof verie manie of them neither fearing God,
neither regarding either manners or obedience, do oftentimes come
to confusion, which (if anie correction or discipline had beene
vsed toward them in youth) might haue prooued good members of
their common-wealth & countrie, by their good seruice and
industrie.” --_Descr. of Britaine_, Holinshed, i. 115, col. 2.

This is borne out by Ascham, who says that young men up to 17 were well looked after, but after that age were turned loose to get into all the mischief they liked:

“In deede, from seven to seventene, yong jentlemen commonlie be
carefullie enough brought up: But from seventene to seven and
twentie (the most dangerous tyme of all a mans life, and most
slipperie to stay well in) they have commonlie the rein of all
licens in their owne hand, and speciallie soch as do live in the
Court. And that which is most to be merveled at, commonlie the
wisest and also best men be found the fondest fathers in this
behalfe. And if som good father wold seek some remedie herein, yet
the mother (if the household of our Lady) had rather, yea, and
will to, have her sonne cunnyng and bold, in making him to lyve
trimlie when he is yong, than by learning and travell to be able
to serve his Prince & his countrie, both wiselie in peace, and
stoutlie in warre, whan he is old.

“The fault is in your selves, ye noble mens sonnes, and therfore
ye deserve the greater blame, that commonlie the meaner mens
children cum to be the wisest councellours, and greatest doers, in
the weightie affaires of this realme.” --_Scholemaster_, ed. Mayor,
p. 39-40.

Note lastly, on this subject of private tuition, that Mulcaster in his _Elementarie_, 1582, complains greatly of rich people aping the custom of princes in having private tutors for their boys, and withdrawing them from public schools where the spirit of emulation against other boys would make them work. The course he recommends is, that rich people should send their sons, with their tutors, to the public schools, and so get the advantage of both kinds of tuition.

_Girls’ Home Education._ The earliest notice of an English Governess that any friend has found for me is in “the 34th Letter of Osbert de Clare in Stephen’s reign, A.D. 1135-54. He mentions what seems to be a Governess of his children, ‘_quædam matrona quæ liberos ejus_ (sc. _militis, Herberti de Furcis_) _educare consueverat_.’ She appears to be treated as one of the family: e.g. they wait for her when she goes into a chapel to pray. I think a nurse would have been ‘ancilla quæ liberos ejus nutriendos susceperat.’” Walter de Biblesworth was the tutor of the “lady Dionysia de Monchensi, a Kentish heiress, the daughter of William de Monchensi, baron of Swanescombe, and related, apparently,[[35a]] to the Valences, earls of Pembroke, and wrote his French Grammar, or rather Vocabulary[36], for her. She married Hugh de Vere, the second son of Robert, fifth earl of Oxford. (Wright.) Lady Jane Grey was taught by a tutor at home, as we have seen. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII.’s “most dere and most entirely beloved suster, quene Mary, douagier of France,” and no doubt wrote his _Lesclaircissement de la Langue Francoise_ mainly for her, though also “desirous to do some humble service unto the nobilitie of this victorious realme, and universally unto all other estates of this my natyfe country.” Giles Du Guez, or as Palsgrave says to Henry VIII., “the synguler clerke, maister Gyles Dewes, somtyme instructor to your noble grace in this selfe tong, at the especiall instaunce and request of dyvers of your highe estates and noble men, hath also for his partye written in this matter.” His book is entitled “An Introductorie for to lerne to rede, to pronounce & to speke French trewly: compyled for the Right high, excellent, and most vertuous lady The Lady Mary of Englande, doughter to our most gracious soverayn Lorde Kyng Henry the Eight.”

[Headnote: UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN EARLY ENGLAND.]

3. _English University Education._ In early days Cambridge and Oxford must be looked on, I suppose, as mainly the great schools for boys, and the generality of scholars as poor men’s children,[37] like Chaucer’s ‘poore scolares tuo that dwelten in the soler-halle of Cantebregge,’ his Clerk of Oxenford, and those students, gifts to whom are considered as one of the regular burdens on the husbandman, in “God speed the Plough.” Mr Froude says, Hist. of England, I. 37:

“The universities were well filled, by the sons of yeomen chiefly.
The cost of supporting them at the colleges was little, and
wealthy men took a pride in helping forward any boys of
promise[38] (_Latimer’s Sermons_, p. 64). It seems clear also, as
the Reformation drew nearer, while the clergy were sinking lower
and lower, a marked change for the better became perceptible in a
portion at least of the laity.”

But Grosseteste mentions a “noble” scholar at Oxford (_Epist._ 129), and Edward the Black Prince and Henry V. are said to have been students of Queen’s College, Oxford. Wolsey himself was a College tutor at Oxford, and had among his pupils the sons of the Marquess of Dorset, who afterwards gave him his first preferment, the living of Lymington. (Chappell.) [[38a]]

The legend runs that the first school at Oxford was founded by King Alfred[39], and that Oxford was a place of study in the time of Edward the Confessor (1041-66). If one may quote a book now considered to be ‘a monkish forgery and an exploded authority,’ Ingulfus, who was Abbot of Croyland, in the Isle of Ely, under William the Conqueror, says of himself that he was educated first at Westminster, and then passed to Oxford, where he made proficiency in such books of Aristotle as were then accessible to students,[40] and in the first two books of Tully’s Rhetoric.--_Malden_, On the Origin of Universities, 1835, p. 71.

In 1201 Oxford is called a _University_, and said to have contained 3000 scholars; in 1253 its first College (University) is founded. In 1244, Hen. III. grants it its first privileges as a corporate body, and confirms and extends them in 1245. In his reign, Wood says the number of scholars amounted to 30,000, a number no doubt greatly exaggerated.

[Headnote: POVERTY OF UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS.]

In the reign of Stephen, we know that Vacarius, a Lombard by birth, who had studied the civil law at Bologna, came into England, and formed a school of law at Oxford[41] ... he remained in England in the reign of Henry II. On account of the difficulty and expense of obtaining copies of the original books of the Roman law, and _the poverty of his English scholars_, Vacarius [ab. 1149, A.D.] compiled an abridgment of the Digests and Codex, in which their most essential parts were preserved, with some difference of arrangement, and illustrated from other law-books.... It bore on its title that it was “_pauperibus presertim destinatus_;” and hence the Oxford students of law obtained the name of _Pauperists._--_Malden_, p. 72-3.

Roger Bacon (who died 1248)[[41a]] speaks of a young fellow who came to him, aged 15, not having wherewithal to live, or finding proper masters: “because he was obliged to serve those who gave him necessaries, during two years found no one to teach him a word in the things he learned.” --_Opus Tertium_, cap. xx. In 1214 the Commonalty of Oxford agreed to pay 52s. yearly for the use of poor scholars, and to give 100 of them a meal of bread, ale, and pottage, with one large dish of flesh or fish, every St Nicholas day.--_Wood’s An._ i. 185. _Wood’s Annals_ (ed. Gutch, v. i. p. 619-20) also notes that in 1461 A.D. divers Scholars were forced to get a license under the Chancellor’s hand and seal (according to the Stat. 12 Ric. II., A.D. 1388, _Ib._, p. 519) to beg: and Sir Thos. More says “then may wee yet, like poor Scholars of Oxford, go a begging with our baggs & wallets, & sing salve Regina at rich mens dores.” On this point we may also compare the Statutes of Walter de Merton for his College at Oxford, A.D. 1274, ed. Halliwell, 1843, p. 19:

Cap. 13. De admissione scholarium.

Hoc etiam in eadem domo specialiter observari volo et decerno, ut
circa eos, qui ad hujusmodi eleemosinæ participationem admittendi
fuerint, diligenti solicitudine caveatur, ne qui præter castos,
honestos, pacificos, humiles, _indigentes_, ad studium habiles ac
proficere volentes, admittantur. Ad quorum agnitionem singulis,
cum in dicta societate fuerint admittendi sustentationis gratia in
eadem, ad annum unum utpote probationis causa primitus concedatur,
ut sic demum si in dictis conditionibus laudabiliter se habuerint,
in dictam congregationem admittantur.

See also cap. 31, against horses of scholars being kept.

Lodgings were let according to the joint valuation of 2 Magistri (scholars) and two townsmen (probi et legales homines de Villa). _Wood_, i. 255. An. 15 Hen. III. A.D. 1230-1.

In the beginning of the 15th century it had become the established rule that every scholar must be a member of some college or hall. The scholars who attended the public lectures of the university, without entering themselves at any college or hall, were called _chamber dekyns_, as in Paris they were called martinets; and frequent enactments were made against them.--_Malden_, p. 85, ref. to _Woods Annals_, 1408, -13, -22, and 1512, &c.

The following are the dates of the foundations of the different Colleges at Oxford as given in the University Calendar:--

University College, 1253-80[42]
Balliol Coll., betw. 1263 & 1268
Merton College, founded at
Maldon, in Surrey, in
1264, removed to Oxford
in 1274
Exeter College 1314
Oriel „ 1326
The Queen’s College 1340
New „ 1386
Lincoln „ 1427
All Souls „ 1437
Magdalen „ 1458
The King’s Hall and }
College of Brasenose } 1509
Corpus Christi College 1516
Christ Church „ 1526
Trinity College 1554
St John’s „ 1555
Jesus „ 1571
Wadham „ 1613
Pembroke „ 1624
Worcester „ 1714

HALLS

St Edmund Hall 1317
St Mary’s „ 1333
New Inn „ 1438
Magdalen „ 1487
St Alban „ after 1547

[Headnote: UNDERGRADUATE’S EXPENSES AT OXFORD, 1478.]

‘The Paston Letters’ do not give us much information about studies or life at Oxford, but they do give us material for estimating the cost of a student there (ii. 124[43]); they show us the tutor reporting to a mother her son’s progress in learning (ii. 130), and note the custom of a man, when made bachelor, giving a feast: “I was made bachelor ... on Friday was se’nnight (18 June, 1479), and I made my feast on the Monday after (21 June). I was promised venison against my feast, of my Lady Harcourt, and of another person too, but I was deceived of both; but my guests held them pleased with such meat as they had, blessed be God.” The letter as to the costs is dated May 19, 1478.

“I marvel sore that you sent me no word of the letter which I sent
to you by Master William Brown at Easter. I sent you word that
time that I should send you mine expenses particularly; but as at
this time the bearer hereof had a letter suddenly that he should
come home, & therefore I could have no leisure to send them to you
on that wise, & therefore I shall write to you in this letter the
whole sum of my expenses since I was with you till Easter last
past, and also the receipts, reckoning the twenty shillings that I
had of you to Oxon wards, with the bishop’s finding:--

£ s. d.
The whole sum of receipts is 5 17 6
And the whole sum of expenses is 6 5 5¾
And that [= what] cometh over my receipts
& my expenses I have borrowed of Master Edmund,
& it draweth to 8 0

and yet I reckon none expenses since Easter; but as for them, they
be not great.”

On this account Fenn says,

“he (Wm. Paston) had expended £6 5s. 5¾d. from the time he left
his mother to Easter last, which this year fell on the 22nd March,
from which time it was now two months, & of the expenses ‘since
incurred’ he says ‘they be not great.’ We may therefore conclude
the former account was from the Michaelmas preceding, and a
moderate one; if so, we may fairly estimate his university
education at £100 a-year of our present money. I mean that £12
10s. 11½d. would then procure as many necessaries and comforts as
£100 will at this day.”

What was the basis of Fenn’s calculation he does not say. In 1468, the estimates for the Duke of Clarence’s household expenses give these prices, among others:

s. d. £ s. d.
Wheat, a quarter 6 0 now, say 3 0 0
Ale, a gallon - 1½ „ - 1 0
Beves, less hide and tallow, each 10 0 „ 15 0 0[*]
Muttons „ „ 1 4 „ 2 10 0[*]
Velys „ „ 2 6 „ 4 0 0[*]
Porkes „ „ 2 0 „ 5 0 0
Rice, a pound 3 „ 5
Sugar „ 6 „ 6
Holland, an ell (6d., 8d., 16d.) 10 „ 1 3
Diapre „ 4 6 „ 3 0
Towelles „ 1 8 „ 1 6
Napkyns, a dozen, 12s., £1, £2, 17 4 „ 2 0 0
---------- -------------
£2 7 0½ £31 17 8

[*: Poor ones.]

This sum would make the things named nearly 14 times as dear now as in 1468, and raise Fenn’s £100 to about £180; but no reliance can be placed on this estimate because we know nothing of the condition of the beves, muttons, veles, and porkys, then, as contrasted with ours. Possibly they were half the size and half the weight. Still, I have referred the question to Professor Thorold Rogers, author of the _History of Prices_ 1250-1400 A.D., and he says:

“In the year to which you refer (1478) bread was very dear, 50 per
cent. above the average. But on the whole, wheat prices in the
15th century were lower than in the 14th. Fenn’s calculation,
a little below the mark for wheat, is still less below it in most
of the second necessaries of life. The multiple of wheat is about
9, that of meat at least 24, those of butter and cheese nearly as
much. But that of clothing is not more than 6, that of linen from
4 to 5. Taking however one thing with another, 12 is a safe
general multiplier.”

This would make the cost of young Paston’s university education £150 11s. 6d. a year.

Mr Whiston would raise Fenn’s estimate of £100 to £200. He says that the rent of land in Kent in 1540 was a shilling or eighteenpence an acre,--see _Valor Ecclesiasticus_,--and that the tithes and glebes of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester, which were worth about £480 a-year in 1542, are now worth £19,000.

The remaining Oxford letter in the Paston volumes seems to allude to the students bearing part of the expenses of the degree, or the feast at it, of a person related to royal family.

“I supposed, when that I sent my letter to my brother John, that
the Queen’s brother should have proceeded at Midsummer, and
therefore I beseeched her to send me some money, _for it will be
some cost to me_, but not much.”

The first school at Cambridge is said to have been founded by Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred, but on no good authority. In 1223 the term _University_ was applied to the place. The dates of the foundations of its Colleges, as given in its Calendar, are:

St Peter’s 1257
(date of charter, 1264)
Clare Hall 1326
Pembroke 1347
Caius 1349
Trinity Hall 1350
Corpus Christi 1351
King’s 1441
Queen’s 1446
(refounded 1465)
St Catherine’s Hall 1473
Jesus 1496
Christ’s 1505
St John’s 1511
Magdalene 1519
Trinity 1546
Emmanuel 1584
Sidney 1598
Downing 1800

[Headnote: FEW NOBLEMEN AT CAMBRIDGE.]

Lord Henry Brandon, son of the Duke of Suffolk, died of the sweating sickness then prevalent in the University, on the 16th July, 1551, while a student of Cambridge. His brother, Lord Charles Brandon, died on the same day. Their removal to Buckden was too late to save them (_Ath. Cant._, i. 105, 541). Of them Ascham says, ‘two noble Primeroses of Nobilitie, the yong Duke of Suffolke and Lord _H. Matrevers_ were soch two examples to the Courte for learnyng, as our tyme may rather wishe, than look for agayne.’--_Scholemaster_, ed. Mayor, p. 62. Besides these two young noblemen, the first 104 pages of Cooper’s _Athenæ Cantabrigienses_ disclose only one other, Lord Derby’s son, and the following names of sons of knights:[44]

CAMBRIDGE MEN.

1443
Thomas Rotherham, Fellow of King’s, son of Sir Thomas Rotherham,
knight, and Alice his wife.

1494
Reginald Bray, high-steward of the university of Oxford, son of
Sir Richard Bray, knight, and the lady Joan his second wife.

1502
Humphrey Fitzwilliam, of Pembroke Hall, Vice-Chancellor, _appears_
to have been the son of Sir Richard Fitzwilliam of Ecclesfield,
and Elizabeth his wife.

ab. 1468
Richard Redman, son of Sir Richard Redman and Elizabeth [Aldburgh]
his wife; made Bp. of St Asaph.

1492
Thomas Savage, son of Sir John Savage, knight, Bp. of Rochester.
Was LL.D. ? educated at Cambridge.

1485
James Stanley, younger son of Thomas Earl of Derby, educated at
both universities, graduated at Cambridge, and became prebendary
of Holywell in 1485, Bp. of Ely in 1506.

1497
William Coningsby, son of Sir Humphrey Coningsby, elected from
Eton to King’s.

1507
Thomas Elyot, son of Sir Richard Elyot, made M.A.

ab. 1520
George Blagge, son of Sir Robert Blagge.

Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, Lord Essex, was at Trinity College, Cambridge. See his letter of May 13, from there, in Ellis, series II. v. iii. p. 73; the furniture of his room, and his expenses, in the note p. 73-4; and his Tutor’s letter asking for new clothes for ‘my Lord,’ or else ‘he shall not onely be thrid bare, but ragged.’

Archbp. Whitgift[45], when B.D. at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, A.D. 1563, “bestowed some of his time and abilities in the instruction of ingenious youth, sent to the college for education, in good learning and Christian manners. And among such his pupils, were two noblemen’s sons, viz. the Lord Herbert, son and heir to the Earl of Pembroke; and John, son and heir to the Lord North.” (_Life_, by Strype, ed. 1822, vol. i. p. 14.)

While Whitgift was Master of Trinity, Strype says he had bred up under him not only several Bishops, but also “the Earls of Worcester and Cumberland, the Lord Zouch, the Lord Dunboy of Ireland, Sir Nicolas and Sir Francis Bacon. To which I may add one more, namely, the son of Sir Nicolas White, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, who married a Devereux.” (_Life_, i. 157, ed. 1822.)

[Headnote: NOBLES AND GENTLEMEN AT OXFORD.]

A search through the whole of the first volume of Wood’s _Athenæ Oxonienses_, comprising a period of nearly 100 years, has resulted in the following meagre list of men of noble or knightly birth who distinguished themselves. There are besides many men of “genteel parents,” some of trader-ones, many friars, some Winchester men, but no Eton ones, educated at Oxford.

1478
Edmund Dudley, son of John Dudley, Esq., 2nd son of John Lord
Dudley, of Dudley Castle in Staffordshire.

ab. 1483
John Colet, the eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, twice lord mayor
of London ... was educated in grammaticals, partly in London or
Westminster.

„
Nicholas Vaux, son of Sir Will. Vaux of Harwedon in
Northamptonshire (not the Poet, Lord Vaux).

end of Edw. IV.
John Bourchier, Lord Berners, eldest son of Sir John Bourchier,
knight, Lord Berners of Hertfordshire ... was instructed in
several sorts of learning in the university in the latter end of
K. Edw. IV.; in whose reign, and before, were the sons of divers
of the English nobility educated in academical literature in
Baliol Coll.,[46] wherein, as ’tis probable, this our author was
instructed also.

1497
Thomas More, son of Sir John More, knight. (_The_ Sir Thomas More.)

? ab. 1510
George Bulleyn, son and heir of Sir Tho. Bullen, and brother of
Anne Bulleyn.

? „
Henry Parker, son of Sir William Parker, knight.

1515
Christopher Seintgerman, son of Sir Henry Seintgerman, knight.

? ab. 1520
Thomas Wyatt, son of Henry Wyatt of Alington Castle in Kent,
knight and baronet, migrated from St John’s, Cambridge.[47]

1538[48]
John Heron, a Kentish man born, near of kin to Sir John Heron,
knight.

? ab. 1520
Edward Seymoure, son of Sir John Seymoure, or St Maure of
Wolf-hall in Wilts, knight, was educated in trivials, and partly
in quadrivials for some time in this university. He was Jane
Seymour’s brother, and afterwards Duke of Somerset, and was
beheaded on Jan. 22, 1552-3.

1534
John Philpot, son of Sir Pet. Philpot, knight of the Bath. Fellow
of New Coll.

ab. 15--
Henry Lord Stafford (author of the _Mirror for Magistrates_), the
only son of Edward, Duke of Bucks, ‘received his education in both
the universities, especially in that of Cambridge, to which his
father had been a benefactor.’

1515
Reynold Pole (the Cardinal), a younger son of Sir Rich. Pole.

? ab. 1530
Anthony Browne, son of Sir Weston Browne, of Abbesroding and of
Langenhoo in Essex, knight.

ab. 1574
Patrick Plunket, baron of Dunsary in Ireland, son of Rob. Plunket,
baron of the same place.

ab. 1570
Philip Sidney (the poet), son of Sir Henry Sidney.

?
John Smythe, son of Sir Clem. Smythe.

(Peter Levens or Levins, our _Manipulus_ or Rhyming-Dictionary
man, became a student in the university, an. 1552, was elected
probationer-fellow of Mag. Coll. into a Yorkshire place, 18 Jan.
1557, being then bach. of arts, and on the 19th Jan. 1559 was
admitted true and perpetual fellow. In 1560 he left his
fellowship. _Ath. Ox._ p. 547, col. 2.)

? ab. 1570
Reynolde Scot, a younger son of Sir John Scot of Scotshall, near
to Smeeth in Kent.

1590
Hayward Townshend, eldest son of Sir Henry Townshend, knight.

ab. 1587
Francis Tresham (of Gunpowder Plot notoriety), son of Sir Thomas
Tresham, knight.

The number of friars and monks at the Universities before the Reformation, and especially at Oxford, must have been large. Tanner says,

In our universities ... were taught divinity and canon law (then,
t. Hen. III., much in vogue), and the friers resorting thither in
great numbers and applying themselves closely to their studies,
outdid the monks in all fashionable knowledge. But the monks
quickly perceived it, and went also to the universities and
studied hard, that they might not be run down by the friers.[49]
And as the friers got houses in the universities, the monks also
got colleges founded and endowed there[50] for the education of
their novices, where they were for some years instructed in
grammar, philosophy, and school divinity, and then returning home,
improved their knowledge by their private studies, to the service
of God and the credit of their respective societies. So that a
little before the Reformation, the greatest part of the proceeders
in divinity at Oxford were monks and Regular canons.

[Headnote: FAVOURITISM OF THE RICH IN THE UNIVERSITIES.]

By Harrison’s time, A.D. 1577[51], rich men’s sons had not only pressed into the Universities, but were scrooging poor men’s sons out of the endowments meant only for the poor, learning the lessons that Mr Whiston so well shows our Cathedral dignitaries have carried out with the stipends of their choristers, boys and men. “_Les gros poissons mangent les menus._ Pro. Poore men are (easily) supplanted by the rich, the weake by the strong, the meane by the mighty.”[52] (Cotgrave, u. _manger_.) The law of “natural selection” prevails. Who shall say nay in a Christian land professing the principles of the great “Inventor of Philanthropy”? Whitgift for one, see his Life of Strype, Bk. I. chap. xiii. p. 148-50, ed. 1822. In 1589 an act 31 Eliz. c. 6, was passed to endeavour to prevent the abuse, but, like modern Election-bribery Acts with their abuse, did not do it.

[Headnote: BAD EXAMPLE OF RICH MEN AT COLLEGE.]

“at this present, of one sort & other, there are about three
thousand students nourished in them both (as by a late serveie it
manifestlie appeared). They [the Colleges at our Universities]
were created by their founders at the first, onelie for pore men’s
sons, whose parents were not able to bring them up unto learning:
but now they have the least benefit of them, by reason the rich do
so incroch upon them. And so farre hath this inconvenence spread
itself, that it is in my time an hard matter for a pore man’s
child to come by a fellowship (though he be neuer so good a
scholer & worthie of that roome.) Such packing also is used at
elections, that not he which best deserveth, but he that hath most
friends, though he be the worst scholer, is alwaies surest to
speed; which will turne in the end to the overthrow of learning.
That some gentlemen also, whose friends have been in times past
benefactors to certeine of those houses, doe intrude into the
disposition of their estates, without all respect of order or
statutes devised by the founders, onelie thereby to place whome
they think good (and not without some hope of gaine) the case is
too too evident, and their attempt would soone take place, if
their superiors did not provide to bridle their indevors. In some
grammar schooles likewise, which send scholers to these
universities, it is lamentable to see what briberie is used; for
yer the scholer can be preferred, such briberye is made, that pore
men’s children are commonly shut out, and the richer sort received
(who in times past thought it dishonour to live as it were upon
almes) and yet being placed, most of them studie little other than
histories, tables, dice & trifles, as men that make not the living
by their studie the end of their purposes; which is a lamentable
bearing. Besides this, being for the most part either gentlemen,
or rich men’s sonnes, they oft bring the universities into much
slander.[53] For standing upon their reputation and libertie, they
ruffle and roist it out, exceeding in apparell, and hanting
riotous companie (which draweth them from their bookes into an
other trade). And for excuse, when they are charged with breach of
all good order, thinke it sufficient to saie, that they be
gentlemen, which grieveth manie not a little. But to proceed with
the rest.

“Everie one of these colleges haue in like manner their professors
or readers of the tongs and severall sciences, as they call them,
which dailie trade up the youth there abiding privatlie in their
halles, to the end they may be able afterwards (when their turne
commeth about, which is after twelve termes) to show themselves
abroad, by going from thence into the common schooles and publike
disputations (as it were _In aream_) there to trie their skilles,
and declare how they have profited since their coming thither.

“Moreover in the publike schooles of both the universities, there
are found at the prince’s charge (and that verie largelie) five
professors & readers, that is to saie, of divinitie, of the civill
law, physicke, the Hebrew and the Greek tongues. And for the other
lectures, as of philosophie, logike, rhetorike and the
quadriuials, although the latter (I mean, arithmetike, musike,
geometrie and astronomie, and with them all skill in the
perspectives are now smallie regarded in either of them) the
universities themselves do allowe competent stipends to such as
reade the same, whereby they are sufficiently provided for,
touching the maintenance of their estates, and no less encouraged
to be diligent in their functions.”

On the introduction of the study of Greek into the Universities, Dr S. Knight says in his _Life of Colet_:

“As for _Oxford_, its own _History_ and _Antiquities_ sufficiently
confess, that nothing was known there but _Latin_, and that in the
most depraved Style of the _School-men_. _Cornelius Vitellius_, an
_Italian_, was the first who taught _Greek_ in that
University[54]; and from him the famous _Grocyne_ learned the
first Elements thereof.

“In _Cambridge_, _Erasmus_ was the first who taught the _Greek
Grammar_. And so very low was the State of Learning in that
University, that (as he tells a Friend) about the Year 1485, the
Beginning of _Hen._ VII. Reign, there was nothing taught in that
publick Seminary besides _Alexander’s Parva Logicalia_, (as they
called them) the old _Axioms_ of _Aristotle_, and the _Questions_
of John Scotus, till in Process of time _good Letters_ were
brought in, and some Knowledge of the _Mathematicks_; as also
_Aristotle_ in a new Dress, and some Skill in the _Greek_ Tongue;
and, by Degrees, a Multitude of _Authors_, whose _Names_ before
had not been heard of.[55]

“It is certain that even _Erasmus_ himself did little understand
_Greek_, when he came first into _England_, in 1497 (13 _Hen._
VII.), and that our Countryman _Linacer_ taught it him, being just
returned from _Italy_ with great Skill in that Language: Which
_Linacer_ and _William Grocyne_ were the two only Tutors that were
able to teach it.” Saml. Knight, Life of Dr John Colet, pp.
17, 18.

The age at which boys went up to the University seems to have varied greatly. When Oxford students were forbidden to play marbles they could not have been very old. But in “The Mirror of the Periods of Man’s Life” (? ab. 1430 A.D.), in the Society’s _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ_ of this year, we find the going-up age put at twenty:

Quod resou{n}, in age of .XX. ȝeer,
Goo to oxenford, or lerne lawe[56].

This is confirmed by young Paston’s being at Eton at nineteen (see below, p. lvi). In 1612, Brinsley (_Grammar Schoole_, p. 307) puts the age at fifteen, and says,

“such onely should be sent to the Vniuersities, who proue most
ingenuous and towardly, and who, in a loue of learning, will begin
to take paines of themselues, hauing attained in some sort the
former parts of learning; being good Grammarians at least, able to
vnderstand, write and speake Latine in good sort.

“Such as haue good discretion how to gouerne themselues there, and
to moderate their expenses; which is seldome times before 15
yeeres of age; which is also the youngest age admitted by the
statutes of the Vniuersity, as I take it.”

[Headnote: FOREIGN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.]

4. _Foreign University Education._ That some of our nobles sent their sons to be educated in the French universities (whence they sometimes imported foreign vices into England[57]) is witnessed by some verses in a Latin Poem “in MS. Digby, No. 4 (Bodleian Library) of the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century,” printed by Mr Thomas Wright in his _Anecdota Literaria_, p. 38.

Filii nobilium, dum sunt juniores,
Mittuntur in Franciam fieri doctores;
Quos prece vel pretio domant corruptores,
Sic prætaxatos referunt artaxata mores.

An English _nation_ or set of students of the Faculty of Arts at Paris existed in 1169; after 1430 the name was changed to the German nation. Besides the students from the French provinces subject to the English, as Poictou, Guienne, &c, it included the English, Scottish, Irish, Poles, Germans, &c. --_Encyc. Brit._ John of Salisbury (born 1110) says that he was twelve years studying at Paris on his own account. Thomas a Becket, as a young man, studied at Paris. Giraldus Cambrensis (born 1147) went to Paris for education; so did Alexander Neckham (died 1227). Henry says,

“The English, in particular, were so numerous, that they occupied
several schools or colleges; and made so distinguished a figure by
their genius and learning, as well as by their generous manner of
living, that they attracted the notice of all strangers. This
appears from the following verses, describing the behaviour of a
stranger on his first arrival in Paris, composed by Negel Wircker,
an English student there, A.D. 1170:--

The stranger dress’d, the city first surveys,
A church he enters, to his God he prays.
Next to the schools he hastens, each he views,
With care examines, anxious which to chuse.
The English most attract his prying eyes,
Their manners, words, and looks, pronounce them wise.
Theirs is the open hand, the bounteous mind;
Theirs solid sense, with sparkling wit combin’d.
Their graver studies jovial banquets crown,
Their rankling cares in flowing bowls they drown.[58]

Montpelier was another University whither Englishmen resorted, and is to be remembered by us if only for the memory of Andrew Borde, M.D., some bits of whose quaintness are in the notes to Russell in the present volume.

Padua is to be noted for Pace’s sake. He is supposed to have been born in 1482.

Later, the custom of sending young noblemen and gentlemen to Italy--to travel, not to take a degree--was introduced, and Ascham’s condemnation of it, when no tutor accompanied the youths, is too well known to need quoting. The Italians’ saying, _Inglese Italianato è un diabolo incarnato_, sums it up.[59]

[Headnote: MONASTIC AND CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS.]

5. _Monastic and Cathedral Schools._ Herbert Losing, Bp. of Thetford, afterwards Norwich, between 1091 and 1119, in his 37th Letter restores his schools at Thetford to Dean Bund, and directs that no other schools be opened there.

Tanner (_Not. Mon._ p. xx. ed. Nasmith), when mentioning “the use and advantage of these Religious houses”--under which term “are comprehended, cathedral and collegiate churches, abbies, priories, colleges, hospitals, preceptories (Knights Templars’ houses), and frieries”--says,

“Secondly, They were schools of learning & education; for every
convent had one person or more appointed for this purpose; and all
the neighbours that desired it, might have their children taught
grammar and church musick without any expence to them.[60]

In the nunneries also young women were taught to work, and to read
English, and sometimes Latin also. So that not only the lower rank
of people, who could not pay for their learning, but most of the
noblemen and gentlemen’s daughters were educated in those
places.”[61]

[Headnote: LYDGATE’S TRICKS AT SCHOOL.]

As Lydgate (born at Lydgate in Suffolk, six or seven miles from Newmarket) was ordained subdeacon in the Benedictine monastery of Bury St Edmunds in 1389[62], he was probably sent as a boy to a monastic school. At any rate, as he sketches his early escapades--apple-stealing, playing truant, &c.,--for us in his _Testament_[63], I shall quote the youth’s bit of the poem here:--

[Line numbers in the following selections were added by the
transcriber for use with sidenotes.]

Harleian MS. 2255, fol. 60.

Duryng the tyme / of this sesou{n} ver
I meene the sesou{n} / of my yeerys greene
Gynnyng fro childhood / strecchith{e}[A] vp so fer
to þe yeerys / accountyd ful Fifteene
bexperience / as it was weel seene
The gerissh{e} sesou{n} / straunge of condiciou{n}s
Dispoosyd to many vnbridlyd passiouns 7

[Sidenote: [fol. 60 b.]]

¶ Voyd of resou{n} / yove to wilfulnesse
Froward to vertu / of thrift gaf[B] litil heede
loth to lerne / lovid no besynesse
Sauf pley or merthe / strau{n}ge to spelle or reede
Folwyng al appetites / longyng to childheede
lihtly tournyng wylde / and seelde sad
Weepyng for nouht / and anoon afftir glad 14

¶ For litil wroth / to stryve with my felawe
As my passiou{n}s / did my bridil leede
Of the yeerde somtyme / I Stood in awe
to be scooryd[C] / that was al my dreede
loth toward scole / lost my tyme in deede
lik a yong colt / that ran with-owte brydil
Made my freendys / ther good to spend in ydil / 21

[Sidenotes (by line number):
[1] In my boyhood, [4] up to 15, [10] I loved no work but play
[17] yet I was afraid of being scored by the rod.]

¶ I hadde in custom / to come to scole late
Nat for to lerne / but for a contenaunce
with my felawys / reedy to debate
to Iangle and Iape / was set al my plesaunce
wherof rebukyd / this was my chevisaunce
to forge a lesyng / and therupon to muse
whan I trespasyd / my silven to excuse 28

[Sidenote: [fol. 61.]]

¶ To my bettre / did no reverence
Of my sovereyns / gaf no fors at al
wex obstynat / by inobedience
Ran in to garydns / applys ther I stal
To gadre frutys / sparyd hegg[D] nor wal
to plukke grapys / in othir mennys vynes
Was moor reedy / than for to seyn[E] matynes 35

¶ My lust was al / to scorne folk and iape
Shrewde tornys / evir among to vse
to Skoffe and mowe[F] / lyk a wantou{n} Ape
whan I did evil / othre I did[G] accuse
My wittys five / in wast I did abuse[H]
Rediere chirstoonys / for to[I] telle
Than gon to chirche / or heere the sacry[K] belle 42

[Sidenotes (by line number):
[22] I came to school late, [25] talked, [27] lied to get off
blame, [29] and mocked my masters. [32] I stole apples and
grapes, [36] played tricks and mocked people, [40] liked counting
cherry-stones better than church.]

¶ Loth to ryse / lother to bedde at eve
with vnwassh handys[L] / reedy to dyneer
My _pater noster_ / my _Crede_ / or my beleeve
Cast at the[M] Cok / loo this was my maneer
Wavid with ech{e} wynd / as doth a reed speer
Snybbyd[N] of my frendys / such techchys fortame{n}de[O]
Made deff ere / lyst nat / to them attende 49

[Sidenote: [fol. 61 b.]]

¶ A child resemblyng / which was nat lyk to thryve
Froward to god / reklees[P] in his servise
loth to correcciou{n} / slouh{e} my sylf to shryve
Al good thewys / reedy to despise
Cheef bellewedir / of feyned[Q] trwaundise
this is to meene / my silf I cowde feyne
Syk lyk a trwaunt / felte[R] no maneer peyne 56

¶ My poort my pas / my foot alwey vnstable
my look my eyen / vnswre and vagabounde
In al my werkys / sodeynly chaungable
To al good thewys / contrary I was founde
Now ovir sad / now moornyng / now iocounde
Wilful rekles / mad[S] stertyng as an hare
To folwe my lust / for no man wold I spare. 63

[Sidenotes (by line number):
[43] Late to rise, I was; dirty at dinner, [49] dea to the
snubbings of my friends, [51] reckless in God’s service,
[54] chief shammer of illness when I was well, [57] always
unsteady, [60] ill-conducted, [62] sparing none for my pleasure.]

[Collations:
A: strecched. (These collations are from Harl. 218, fol. 65, back.)
B: toke. C: skoured. D: nedir hegge. E: sey. F: mowen.
G: koude. H: alle vse. I: cheristones to. K: sacryng.
L: hondes. M: atte. N: Snybbyng. O: tamende. P: rekkes.
Q: froward. R: and felt. S: made.]

At these monastic schools, I suppose, were educated mainly the boys whom the monks hoped would become monks, cleric or secular; mostly the poor, the Plowman’s brother who was to be the Parson, not often the ploughman himself. Once, though, made a scholar and monk there, and sent by the Monastery to the University, the workman’s, if not the ploughman’s, son, might rule nobles and sit by kings, nay, beard them to their face. Thomas a Becket, himself the son of independent[[63a]] parents, was sent to be brought up in the “religious house of the Canons of Merton.”

In 1392 the writer of Piers Plowman’s Crede sketches the then state of things thus:

Now mot ich soutere hys sone · seten to schole,
And ich a beggeres brol · on the book lerne,
And worth to a writere · and with a lorde dwelle,
Other falsly to a frere · the fend for to serven; 4
So of that beggares brol · a [bychop[64]] shal worthen,
Among the peres of the lond · prese to sytten,
And lordes sones[65] lowly · to tho losels alowte,
Knyghtes crouketh hem to · and cruccheth ful lowe; 8
And his syre a soutere · y-suled in grees,
His teeth with toylyng of lether · tatered as a sawe.

[Sidenotes (by line number):
[1] Now every cobbler’s son and beggar’s brat turns writer, then
Bishop, [7] and lords’ sons crouch to him, [9] a cobbler’s son.]

Here I might stop the quotation, but I go on, for justice has never yet been done[66] to this noble _Crede_ and William’s _Vision_ as pictures of the life of their times,--chiefly from the profound ignorance of us English of our own language; partly from the grace, the freshness, and the brilliance of Chaucer’s easier and inimitable verse:--

Alaas! that lordes of the londe · leveth swiche wreechen,
And leveth swych lorels · for her lowe wordes.
They shulden maken [bichopes[64]] · her owen bretheren childre,
Other of som gentil blod · And so yt best semed, 4
And fostre none faytoures[64] · ne swich false freres,
To maken fat and fulle · and her flesh combren.
For her kynde were more · to y-clense diches
Than ben to sopers y-set first · and served with sylver. 8
A grete bolle-ful of benen · were beter in hys wombe,
And with the bandes[A] of bakun · his baly for to fillen
Than pertryches or plovers · or pecockes y-rosted,
And comeren her stomakes · with curiuse drynkes 12
That maketh swyche harlotes · hordom usen,
And with her wikkid word · wymmen bitrayeth.
God wold her wonyynge · were in wildernesse,
And fals freres forboden · the fayre ladis chaumbres; 16
For knewe lordes her craft · treuly I trowe
They shulden nought haunten her house · so ho[m]ly[64] on nyghtes,
Ne bedden swich brothels · in so brode shetes, 20
But sheten her heved in the stre · to sharpen her wittes.

[Sidenotes (by line number):
[1] Lords [3] should make gentlemen Bishops, [5] and set these
scamps [7] to clean ditches, [9] and eat beans and bacon-rind
instead of peacocks, [13] and having women. [17] If Lords but knew
their tricks, [20] they’d turn these beggars into the straw.]

[Textnote A: ? randes. Sk.]

[Headnote: EDUCATION OF FIELD LABOURERS.]

There is one side of the picture, the workman’s son turned monk, and clerk to a lord. Let us turn to the other side, the ploughman’s son who didn’t turn monk, whose head _was_ ‘shet’ in the straw, who delved and ditched, and dunged the earth, eat bread of corn and bran, worts fleshless (vegetables, but no meat), drank water, and went miserably (_Crede_, l. 1565-71). What education did he get? To whom could he be apprenticed? What was his chance in life? Let the Statute-Book answer:--

A.D. 1388. 12º Rich. II., Cap. v.

_Item._ It is ordained & assented, That he or she which used to
labour at the Plough and Cart, or other Labour or Service of
Husbandry _till they be of the Age of Twelve Years, that from
thenceforth they shall abide at the same Labour_, without being
put to any Mystery or Handicraft; and if any Covenant or Bond of
Apprentie (_so_) be from henceforth made to the Contrary, the same
shall be holden for none.

A.D. 1405-6. 7º Henri IV., Cap. xvii.

.....And Whereas in the Statutes made at Canterbury among other
Articles it is contained That he or she that useth to labour at
the Plough or Cart, or other Labour or Service of Husbandry, till
he be of the age of Twelve Years, that from the same time forth he
shall abide at the same Labour, without being put to any Mystery
or Handicraft; and if any Covenant or Bond be made from that time
forth to the contrary, it shall be holden for none:
Notwithstanding which Article, and the good Statutes afore made
through all parts of the Realm, the Infants born within the Towns
and Seignories of Upland, whose Fathers & Mothers have no Land nor
Rent nor other Living, but only their Service or Mystery, be put
by their said Fathers and Mothers and other their Friends to
serve, and bound Apprentices, to divers Crafts within the Cities
and Boroughs of the said Realm _sometime at the Age of Twelve
Years, sometime within the said Age_, and that for the Pride of
Clothing and other evil Customs that Servants do use in the same;
so that there is so great Scarcity of Labourers and other Servants
of Husbandry _that the Gentlemen and other People of the Realm be
greatly impoverished for the Cause aforesaid:_ Our Sovereign Lord
the King considering the said Mischief, and willing thereupon to
provide Remedy, by the advice & assent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and at the request of the said Commons, hath ordained
and stablished, That no Man nor Woman, of what Estate or Condition
they be, shall put their Son or Daughter, of whatsoever Age he or
she be, to Serve as Apprentice to no Craft nor other Labour within
any City or Borough in the Realm, except he have Land or Rent to
the Value of Twenty Shillings by the Year at the least, but they
shall be put to other labours as their Estates doth require, upon
Pain of one Year’s Imprisonment, and to make Fine and Ransom at
the King’s Will. And if any Covenant be made of any such Infant,
of what Estate that he be, to the contrary, it shall be holden for
none. Provided Always, that every Man and Woman, of what Estate or
Condition that he be, shall be free to set their Son or Daughter
to take Learning at any manner School that pleaseth them within
the Realm.

A most gracious saving clause truly, for those children who were used to labour at the plough and cart till they were twelve years old[67]. Let us hope that some got the benefit of it!

These Acts I came across when hunting for the Statutes referred to by the _Boke of Curtasye_ as fixing the hire of horses for carriage at fourpence a piece, and they caused me some surprise. They made me wonder less at the energy with which some people now are striving to erect “barriers against democracy” to prevent the return match for the old game coming off.--However improving, and however justly retributive, future legislation for the rich by the poor in the spirit of past legislation for the poor by the rich might be, it could hardly be considered pleasant, and is surely worth putting up the true barrier against, one of education in each poor man’s mind. (He who americanizes us thus far will be the greatest benefactor England has had for some ages.)--These Statutes also made me think how the old spirit still lingers in England, how a friend of my own was curate in a Surrey village where the kind-hearted squire would allow none of the R’s but Reading to be taught in his school; how another clergyman lately reported his Farmers’ meeting on the school question: Reading and Writing might be taught, but Arithmetic not; the boys would be getting to know too much about wages, and that would be troublesome; how, lastly, our gangs of children working on our Eastern-counties farms, and our bird-keeping boys of the whole South, can almost match the children of the agricultural labourer of 1388.

[Headnote: NO BONDSMAN’S SON TO BE AN APPRENTICE.]

The early practice of the Freemasons, and other crafts, refusing to let any member take a bondsman’s son as an apprentice, was founded on the reasonable apprehension that his lord would or might afterwards claim the lad, make him disclose the trade-secrets, and carry on his art for the lord’s benefit. The fourth of the ‘Fyftene artyculus or fyftene poyntus’ of the Freemasons, printed by Mr Halliwell (p. 16), is on this subject.

_Articulus quartus_ (MS. Bibl. Reg. 17 A, Art. I., fol. 3, &c.)

The fowrthe artycul thys moste be,
That the mayster hym wel be-se
That he _no bondemon_ prentys make,
Ny for no covetyse do hym take;
For the lord that he ys bond to,
May fache the prentes whersever he go.
Ȝef yn the logge he were y-take,
Muche desese hyt myȝth ther make,
And suche case hyt myȝth befalle
That hyt myȝth greve summe or alle;
For alle the masonus that ben there
Wol stonde togedur hol y-fere.
Ȝef suche won yn that craft schulde dwelle,
Of dyvers desesys ȝe myȝth telle.
For more ȝese thenne, and of honesté,
Take a prentes of herre[A] degré.
By olde tyme, wryten y fynde
That the prentes schulde be of gentyl kynde;
And so sumtyme grete lordys blod
Toke thys gemetry that ys ful good.

[Text Note:
A: higher.]

I should like to see the evidence of a lord’s son having become a working mason, and dwelling seven years with his master ‘hys craft to lurne.’

[Headnote: POST-REFORMATION CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS.]