four years shall be given to this, or if it shall so seem good to the Dean or in his absence the Sub-dean, and the Head Master, at most five years and not more.

33. The celebration of Divine Service

We will further that both teachers of grammar shall be present in choir on feast-days clothed in garments befitting the choir; one of them having the seat in choir next above the minor canons, the other next after the minor canons.

Moreover we will that the grammar boys who are maintained at the expense of the church shall be present in choir on feast-days, in a proper habit, and diligently do whatever duty is imposed on them by the Precentor; unless they have been otherwise directed by the Head Master. And these boys too we will shall on every day in the year when the sacred mysteries are performed at High Mass be present at the elevation of the body of the Lord, and stay there till the singing of the Agnus Dei is done; and meanwhile, two and two, meditate and say the Psalms "Have mercy on me, O Lord," and "God, have mercy upon us," and "O Lord Jesu Christ," "Out of the deep I cried," with the prayer "Absolve, we beseech thee."

38. Alms and students

The usual qualities which are found in an architect and other overseers of works in pressing on their work, namely, industry and diligence, ought also to be found in pedagogues and teachers of the tender youth, that they may as it were enter into a friendly conspiracy and contention between themselves to imbue thoroughly the scholars committed to their trust with piety and good letters; and not to study their own advantage or indulge their own love of ease so much as to look to their proficiency and the public benefit, so that they may be seen to do their duty fairly in everything. And this they will be able to do much more successfully if they endeavor sedulously to follow the order we have prescribed.

The whole number of the scholars shall be divided into five or six ranks or classes. The Under Master shall teach the three lower, and the Head Master the three upper classes.

The Course of Study

No one shall be admitted into the school who cannot read readily, or who does not know by heart in the vernacular the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the Apostles' Creed and the Ten Commandments. Those who are wholly ignorant of grammar shall learn the accidents of nouns and verbs, as it were out of class. When they have learnt these they shall be taken into the First Class.

In the First Class they shall learn thoroughly by heart the rudiments in English; they shall learn to put together the parts of speech; and to turn a short phrase of English into Latin; and gradually to approach other easy constructions.

In the Second Class they shall learn a little higher; they shall know the genders of nouns and the inflections of verbs written in Latin; they shall run through Cato's verses, Æsop's Fables, and some familiar Colloquies.

In the Third Class they shall endeavor to make right varyings on the nouns and anomalous verbs, so that no noun or verb may be found anywhere which they do not know how to inflect in every detail. In this form too they shall make Terence's Comedies, Mantuanus' Eclogues, and other things of that sort thoroughly familiar to them. These classes the Under Master shall take diligent care of, instilling and inculcating the lesser rudiments into his pupils so as to make them fit and prepared to receive higher instruction.

The Under Master shall come into school at 6 A.M., and immediately after saying the prayers to God which we have prescribed, shall make his scholars daily say by heart one of the eight parts of speech until they are ready in each. Nor shall he omit on any other day to dictate to his pupils an English sentence, and that a short one, which he shall teach them to turn exactly into Latin, and to write it carefully in their parchment note-books.

In short, in anything to be done in the school the Under Master shall be subject to and shall obey the Head Master; and shall consult him on the method and plan of teaching; so that they may both agree in their great zeal for the profit of the scholars. Both too shall endeavour to teach their pupils to speak openly, finely and distinctly, keeping due decorum both with their body and their mouth.

In the Fourth Form the boys shall be taught to know the Latin syntax readily; and shall be practiced in the stories of poets, and familiar letters of learned men and the like.

In the Fifth Form they shall commit to memory the Figures of Latin Oratory and the rules for making verses; and at the same time shall be practiced in making verses and polishing themes; then they shall be versed in translating the chastest Poets and the best Historians.

Lastly, in the Sixth Form they shall be instructed in the formulas of "Copiousness of Words and Things" written by Erasmus; and learn to make varyings of speech in every mood, so that they may acquire the faculty of speaking Latin, as far as is possible for boys. Meanwhile they shall taste Horace, Cicero, and other authors of that class. Meanwhile they shall compete with one another in declamations so that they may leave well learned in the school of argument.

These classes principally the Head Master shall try to polish in Latin.

He shall come into school by 7 o'clock to perform his duty of teaching thoroughly. He too every other day shall make some English sentence into Latin and teach the flock committed to him to change it into many forms. Moreover let him understand that he has charge of the whole school.

So every week he ought to visit the whole flock, once, twice, or three times, and diligently test the abilities of the scholars and ascertain their progress in learning. If he shall prove any of them, after testing them in every way, to be slow and wholly strangers to the Muses, he shall faithfully warn their friends not to let them, being wholly unfit for letters, waste their time in vain and fill the places of others. But those he shall find to be fit and industrious he shall, at least three times a year, call up to the higher forms, namely from the first to the second, from the second to the third, and so on as each shall be thought fit. This shall be done in the presence of and after consultation with the Under Master in the case of those who are entrusted to his care.

Moreover at 6 P.M. the scholars shall return to school, and until 7 P.M. shall do their repetition and render to their fellow-pupils who have become ripe in learning, several masters also being present, whatever they have learnt through the day.

When leave to play is given they shall play and sport together, lest, wandering about here and there, they incur some loss of character, and wanting to do other things their minds gradually become estranged from learning. And they shall not practice any games which are not of a gentlemanly appearance and free of all lowness.

Lastly, whatever they are doing in earnest or in play they shall never use any language but Latin or Greek.

173. Origin of the English Poor Law of 1601

(Nicholls, Sir George, History of the English Poor Law, vol. 1, pp. 192–93.
London, 1860)

The following selection, by the author of the standard history of English Poor-Law legislation, is of interest as revealing the gradual development of the idea of compulsory taxation for the care and education of the poor. On this precedent our early American educational legislation was based.

The 43 Elizabeth was not, we have seen, the result of a sudden thought or a single effort, but was gradually framed upon the sure ground of experience; and it is curious to trace the successive steps by which its chief enactment, that of a compulsory assessment for the relief of the poor, came at length to be established. First, the poor were restricted from begging, except within certain specified limits. Next, the several towns, parishes, and hamlets were required to support their poor by charitable alms, so that none of necessity might be

compelled "to go openly in begging," and collections were to be made for them on Sundays, and the parson was to stir up the people to be bountiful in giving. Then houses and materials for setting the poor on work were to be provided by the charitable devotion of good people, and the minister was every Sunday specially to exhort the parishioners to contribute liberally. Next the collectors for the poor, on a certain Sunday after divine service, were to set down in writing what each householder was willing to give weekly for the ensuing year; and if any should be obstinate and refuse to give, the minister was gently to exhort him, and, if he still refused, then to report him to the bishop, who was to send for and again gently exhort him; and if still refractory, the bishop was to certify the same to the justices in sessions, and bind him over to appear there, when the justices were once more gently to move and persuade him; and if he would not be persuaded, they were then to assess him in such sum as they thought reasonable. This prepared the way for the more general assessment authorized by 14 and 39 Elizabeth, which again led to the complete and universal assessment of property established by the present Act (R. 174).

174. The English Poor-Relief and Apprenticeship Law of 1601 (43 Elizabeth, cap. II. Statutes at Large of England and Great Britain, vol. II, pp. 603-04)

This law marks the great turning point of English Poor-Law legislation, and is still the foundation of the English Poor-Law. It also contains the essential features embodied in subsequent taxation for schools. Without the usual preamble, setting forth the evils to be corrected and the good expected from it, as in the case of most other Statutes, this one plunges at once into the matter at hand. The important sections of the Act create a Board of Overseers of the Poor, give them the power of forcible taxation, empower them to apprentice certain children, and they may compel rich parishes to aid poor ones. The Act read as follows:

AN ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR

I. Board of Overseers of the Poor created. Be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament, That the Churchwardens of every Parish, and Four, Three or Two substantial Householders there, as shall be thought meet, having respect to the Proportion and Greatness of the same Parish and Parishes, to be nominated yearly in the Easter Week, or within One Month after Easter, under the Hand and Seal of Two or more Justices of the Peace in the same County, whereof one to be of the Quorum, dwelling in or near the same Parish or Divi

sion where the same Parish doth lie, shall be called Overseers of the Poor of the same Parish; And they, or the greater Part of them, shall take Order from Time to Time, by and with the Consent of Two or more such Justices of Peace as is aforesaid, for setting to work the Children of all such whose Parents shall not by the said Churchwardens and Overseers, or the greater Part of them, be thought able to keep and maintain their Children; and also for setting to work all such Persons, married or unmarried, having no Means to maintain them, and use no ordinary and daily Trade of Life to get their Living by: And also to raise weekly or otherwise (by Taxation of every Inhabitant, Parson, Vicar and other, and of every Occupier of Lands, Houses, Tithes impropriate, Propriations of Tithes, Coal Mines or salable Underwoods in the said Parish, in such competent Sum and Sums of Money, as they shall think fit) a convenient Stock of Flax, Hemp, Wool, Thread, Iron and other necessary Ware and Stuff, to set the Poor on work, and also competent Sums of Money for and towards the necessary Relief of the Lame, Impotent, Old, Blind, and such other among them, being poor and not able to work, and also for the putting out of such Children to be Apprentices, to be gathered out of the same Parish, according to the Ability of the same Parish, and to do and execute all other Things, as well for the disposing of the said Stock as otherwise concerning the premises, as to them shall seem convenient.

II. Meetings and powers of Board. Which said Churchwardens and Overseers so to be nominated, or such of them as shall not be let by Sickness or other just Excuse, to be allowed by Two such justices of Peace or more as is aforesaid, shall meet together at the least once every Month in the Church of the said Parish, upon the Sunday in the Afternoon after Divine Service, there to consider of some good Course to be taken, and of some meet Order to be set down in the Premises; and shall within Four Days after the End of their Year, and after other Overseers nominated as aforesaid, make and yield up to such Two Justices of Peace as is aforesaid, a true and perfect Account of all Sums of Money by them received, or rated and sessed and not received, and also of such stock as shall be in their Hands, or in the Hands of any of the Poor to work, and of all other Things concerning their said Office; and such Sum or Sums of Money as shall be in their Hands shall pay and deliver over to the said Churchwardens and Overseers newly nominated and appointed as aforesaid; upon Pain that every one of them absenting themselves, without lawful Cause as aforesaid, from such Monthly Meeting for the Purpose aforesaid, or being negligent in their Office, or in the Execution of the Orders aforesaid, being made by and with the Assent of the said Justices of Peace, or any Two of them before mentioned, to forfeit for every such Default or Absence or Negligence Twenty Shillings.

III. Equalizing tax-levy among parishes. And be it also enacted,