to school, at dinner, at home, in church, at play, at supper, when going to bed, when in company of strangers, on rising early, &c. This instruction was not only posted in every village, but the duke decreed, May 1, 1654, that it should be read in every school on examination day, in presence of the mayor, citizens, and elders of every township.

164. The Careful Supervision of the Teacher's Acts and Religious Beliefs in England

(Strype, John. (a) The History of the Life and Acts of the Most Reverend Father in God, Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, p. 378. Oxford, 1821. (b) Ibid., The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker, vol. II, p. 335. Oxford, 1821. Summarized by Stowe, in his Elizabethan Grammar Schools, p. 68)

After the English Church had been separated from Rome and separately established by the Act of Supremacy (R. 153), and after the coming of Elizabeth to the throne (r. 1558-1603), the English Church authorities began a very strict supervision of the manners, morals, and religious teachings and beliefs of the teachers in the schools. Two extracts will show the extent to which this was carried.

(a) Letter of Queen's Council to Archbishop Grindle, June 18, 1580

.. for as much as a great deal of the corruption in religion grown throughout the realm, proceedeth of lewd schoolmasters, that teach and instruct children as well publicly as privately in men's houses; infecting each where the youth without regard had unto (a matter . . . chiefly to be looked into by every Bishop within his diocese) it is thought meet for redress thereof, that you cause all such schoolmasters as have charge of children, to be by the Bishop of the diocese, or such as he shall appoint, examined touching their religion: and if they shall be found corrupt and unworthy, to be displaced, and proceeded withal as other recusants; and fit and sound persons placed in their rooms.

(b) Dismissal of a teacher for non-conformity

In 1573 the mastership of the free school at Aylesham became vacant. Of the three men who applied for the position, Mr. Harrison, M.A., Cambridge, appeared to be best qualified, and was highly recommended by the Mayor and Aldermen of Norwich. Rumor's of Harrison's lack of complete conformity, however, had reached Archbishop Parker, who wrote and urged the Bishop of Norwich not to admit Harrison, who was finally admitted upon condition that he would keep and execute the statutes of the school, in reading the authors there appointed (it had been asserted that he had condemned the reading of profane authors to children), that he would quarrel neither with his Pastor nor with his neighbors, that he would hold no "strange opin

ions" nor defend them obstinately in prophesying, or any other conference, and that "he should use no unlawful games, neither vain nor disordered company." Harrison's term of office was not long. While acting as godfather to an infant about to be baptized he requested the Deacon "to change the word of the bok, viz. thou into you; and to leave out the sign of the cross: as for Dost thou forsake, he would have had him say, Do you forsake; for Dost thou believe, Do you believe; and when it was asked, Wilt thou be baptized in this faith? it was answered, We do bring this child to be baptized into the faith of Christ." Such signs of non-conformity could not be tolerated in a schoolmaster and the Bishop declared his position forfeited, and appointed or admitted a Mr. Sutton whose candidacy had been supported by Archbishop Parker.

165. Penalties on Non-Conforming Schoolmasters

(23 Elizabeth, 1580; c. 1. Statutes of the Realm, 1819 ed., vol. IV, p. 656, s. 5) The following statute of 1580 carried the matter of penalizing non-conforming schoolmasters still further, and shows the type of penalty inflicted on those employing teachers not sound in the faith, and the emphasis placed on the proper form of religious teaching by the State Church in England after the Reformation. An Acte to reteine the Queenes Majestie's subjectes in their due obedience V. Penalty on Corporations employing Schoolmasters not resorting to Church £10; on Schoolmaster, Disability and Imprisonment.

And be yt further enacted, that yf any person or persons, Bodye Pollitike or Corporate, after the Feaste of Pentecost next cominge, shall kepe or mainteyne any Scholemaster, which shall not repayre to Churche as ys aforesaid, or be alowed by the Bisshopp or Ordinarye of the Diocesse where such Scholemaster shal be so kept, shall forfaite and lose for everye moneth so keeping him £10; Provided that no suche Ordinarye or their ministers shall take any thinge for the said Allowaunce; and suche Scholemaster or Teacher presuminge to teache contrarie to this Acte, and beinge therof Lawfullye (convicted) shall be disabled to be a Teacher of youth, and shall suffer ymprisonment without Baile or Maineprise for one yeare.

166. The English Act of Conformity of 1662

(14 Charles II, cap. 4; Transcript, Statutes of the Realm, vol. v, p. 364) This, the last and most exacting Act of Uniformity in religion in England, received the royal assent May 19, 1662. For two centuries it crushed the secondary schools of England.

The Act begins by reciting that in the first year of the reign of Elizabeth (1558) there was compiled a uniform order of service

and prayer for the realm, and that this was enjoined by Parliament, and that "divers persons abstain from conforming to it" and ministers (Dissenters) neglect to use it, to rectify which situation the present Act of Uniformity is proclaimed, and the appended Book of Common Prayer is ordered used uniformly throughout the realm. All clergymen must take oath, on a prescribed form, that they assent to it and will use it in their services, and those that neglect to do so within one month are to be deprived of all religious offices and functions and thereafter forbidden to officiate at any form of service. This was intended to drive out all non-conforming ministers, and to prohibit service by such.

To make the Act still more onerous and effective, it was further provided:

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every dean, canon, and prebendary of every cathedral or collegiate church, and all masters and other heads, fellows, chaplains, and tutors of or in any college, hall, house of learning or hospital, and every public professor and reader in either of the Universities and in every college elsewhere, and every parson, vicar, curate, lecturer, and every other person in Holy Orders, and every schoolmaster keeping any public or private school, and every person instructing or teaching any youth in any house or private family as a tutor or schoolmaster, who upon the first day of May, which shall be in the year of our Lord God 1662, or at any time thereafter, shall be incumbent or have possession of any deanery, canonry, prebend, mastership, headship, fellowship, professor's place or reader's place, parsonage, vicarage, or any other ecclesiastical dignity or promotion, or of any curate's place, lecture, or school, or shall instruct or teach any youth as tutor or schoolmaster, shall before the feast-day of St. Bartholomew which shall be in the year of our Lord 1662, or at or before his or their respective admission to be incumbent or have possession aforesaid, subscribe the declaration or acknowledgment following, scilicet:

"I, A.B. do declare that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take arms against the king; and that I do abhor that traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person or against those that are commissionated by him; and that I will conform to the liturgy of the Church of England, as it is now by law established: and I do declare that I do hold there lies no obligation upon me, or on any other person, from the oath commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant, to endeavour any change or alteration of government either in Church or State; and that the same was in itself an unlawful oath,

and imposed upon the subjects of this realm against the known laws and liberties of this kingdom."...

And if any schoolmaster, or other person, instructing or teaching youth in any private house or family, as a tutor or schoolmaster, shall instruct or teach any youth as a tutor or schoolmaster, before license obtained from his respective archbishop, bishop, or ordinary of the diocese, according to the laws and statutes of this realm (for which he shall pay twelve pence only), and before such subscription and acknowledgment made as aforesaid; then every such schoolmaster and other, instructing and teaching as aforesaid, shall for the first offence suffer three months' imprisonment without bail or mainprize; and for every second, and other such offence, shall suffer three months' imprisonment without bail or mainprize, and also forfeit to his majesty the sum of five pounds: and after such subscription made, every such parson, vicar, curate, and lecturer shall procure a certificate under the hand and seal of the respective archbishop, bishop, or ordinary of the diocese (who are hereby enjoined and required upon demand to make and deliver the same), and shall publicly and openly read the same, together with the declaration or acknowledgment aforesaid, upon some Lord's day within three months then next following, in his parish church where he is to officiate, in the presence of the congregation there assembled, in the time of divine service; upon pain that f every person failing therin shall lose such parsonage, vicarage or benefice, curate's place, or lecturer's place respectively, and shall be utterly disabled and (ipso facto) deprived of the same; and that the said parsonage, vicarage or benefice, curate's place, or lecturer's place shall be void, as if he was naturally dead.

This Act was followed, in 1665 (17 Charles II, cap. 2), by what was known as "The Five Mile Act," which forbade any minister to preach or teacher to teach "within five miles of any city or town corporate, or borough that sends burgesses to Parliament, within his majesty's kingdom of England," or "to teach any public or private school, or take boarders or tablers that are taught or instructed by him or her self, or any other," under penalty of £40 and six months in prison.

These Acts were modified, in 1670, by the English Courts, so as not to apply to teachers in endowed elementary schools where the teacher was the appointee of the founder or the lay patron of the school, and the result was that between 1660 and 1730 approximately 1100 endowed elementary schools were created, largely to escape the stringent provisions of the above Acts. For secondary education they remained unmodified until the second half

of the nineteenth century, with the result that the secondary schools declined in influence, and for two centuries were virtually withdrawn from the national life. "Men would not become schoolmasters," says Montmorency, "when only political or religious hypocrites were allowed to teach."

167. Oath of a Grammar-School Master

(Carlisle, N., A Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools in England and Wales, vol. II, p. 714. London, 1818)

Each grammar-school master was required to take an oath of fealty. This was an old institution in the Church (R. 84 b), and probably goes back to Roman civic requirements. The following oath, as required by the foundation statutes of Kirby Stephen School (1566), is illustrative and typical. In the parish church, and in the presence of at least two Governors of the school, the Churchwardens, twelve men of the parish, and any surviving heirs of the founder, this oath had to be taken by each new Master. It likewise illustrates the close connection of the Church and education in England, the English National Church merely taking the place of the Romanish Church which it had displaced.

I do swear by the contents of this book, that I will freely without exacting any money, diligently instruct and teach the children of this parish, and all others that shall resort to me, in Grammar and other humane doctrine, according to the statutes thereof made, - and I shall not read to them any corrupt or reprobate books or works set forth at any time contrary to the determination of the universal catholique church, whereby they may be infected in their youth in any kind of heresie or corrupt doctrine, or else to be indured to insolent manner of living: And further shall observe all the statutes and ordinances of this schoole now made, or hereafter to be made which concern me, and shall doe nothing in the prejudice thereof, but help to maintain the same from time to time during my aboad herein to the best of my power so help my God, and the contents of this book.

168. An English Elementary-School Teacher's License (Strype, John, Life and Acts of John Whitgift, D.D., vol. 1, Appendix, p. 384. London, 1822)

The following is a license granted by Archbishop Whitgift, of Canterbury, to one William Swetnam, of London, in 1599, licensing him to teach the beginnings of learning to children. (Compare with Rs. 83, 84.)