XVIII FLEET MARRIAGES 297 more episcopal testimony, Bishop Tomline, then Dean of St. Paul's as well as Bishop of Lincoln, laments that, being in St. Paul's on Easter Day 1800, “in that vast and noble Cathedral no more than six persons were found at the Table of the Lord." Cathedral life, it is true, was not then what it has become in our own day, and, moreover, many of the City churches were then living centres and had in some cases very large numbers of communicants. Fleet In nothing, perhaps, was the degenerate condition of the life, both of the Church and of the State shown than in the long-continued scandal of the Fleet marriages, which were conducted in the chapel of the Fleet marriages. Prison by the clerical prisoners, of whom, sad to say, there was generally a large number. So common was the practice of clandestine marriage, that between October 1704 and February 1705 no fewer than 2950 such marriages are recorded. From the Fleet Prison the practice spread to the surrounding neighbourhood, and the numerous ale-houses, taverns, gin and brandy shops were used for this purpose, especially after the Act of Queen Anne taking away the right of marriage from the Fleet Prison chapel. Lord Hardwicke's Act, which came into force on March 26, 1754, rendered thereafter the solemnisation of matrimony by a priest in any place not a church or public chapel, without a licence or the publication of banns, null and void, and such clergy as solemnised them guilty of an act of felony, and punishable on conviction with transportation for fourteen years. It is an interesting reflection on the public opinion of the time to note that on March 25, 1754, the last day before the Act came into operation, no fewer than two hundred and seventeen marriages were entered into one Fleet register-book alone. AUTHORITIES.-In addition to those cited in the last chapter, the Charges of Secker and Butler should be consulted. The Fleet marriages are dealt with by W. Connor Sydney in his England and the English in the Eighteenth Century. For Hymns see C. J. Abbey's chapter in Abbey and Overton's English Church in the Eighteenth Century, and Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology. The original forms of some hymn tunes will be found in Woodward's Songs of Syon. CHAPTER XIX THE SUNDAY SCHOOL MOVEMENT Schools. THE beginning of the modern Sunday School movement is clearly marked as dating from the year 1780. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that the religious education of children on the Lord's Day, or even their education in what were to all intents and purposes Sunday Schools, only dates from so short a time ago. It is not clear to what extent, if any, the movement set on foot in S. Maria Maggiore Sunday in Rome by the archpriest, Cardinal S. Carlo Borromeo, spread beyond Rome and Milan, but Borromeo was unquestionably the real founder of Sunday Schools, and they are still to be seen in their primitive form in many Italian churches. And in England, in the closing years of the seventeenth century and up to 1714, there was a religious revival on far more distinctively Church lines than the revival in the later part of the eighteenth century, and the care of the young on the Lord's Day naturally formed a very conspicuous feature. It was then that a large number of those Charity Schools, in which the young were clothed and fed as well as educated, were founded. The religious training was strictly on the lines of the Church of England. Attendance at church in procession was always part of the scheme, and the founders and supporters were almost without exception pious and consistent churchmen. Their spread was rapid and very extensive. Within five years, between 1699 and 1704, no fewer than fifty such schools were established in London and the suburbs, and the number of children educated may be judged by the fact that on the CHAP. XIX CHARITY SCHOOLS 299 arrival of King George I. in London in 1714 more than 4000 children were assembled to witness the new sovereign's entry, and to greet him with the psalm which bids the king rejoice in the strength of the Lord, and be exceeding glad in His salvation. The interest taken by good churchmen in Christian education is forcibly illustrated by the fact that these children were marshalled by Robert Nelson, the admirable author of Festivals and Fasts, who was a Non-Juror, and therefore could not accept the Hanoverian king, but whose interest in the children for this once overcame his political prejudices. Steele, in the Spectator, thus describes these institutions : "I was last Sunday highly transported at our parish church. The gentleman in the pulpit pleaded movingly in behalf of the poor children, and they for themselves much more movingly by singing a hymn." This was in 1712. Two years later, when the Georgian era set in, the schools, like many other good works, began to languish, partly on account of the general apathy which pervaded the nation, and partly because a ridiculous. report was spread that the schools were abused to inculcate Jacobite principles. Still, they did not cease to exist, and some few were founded in the reigns of the first two Georges. William Law founded a school at King's Cliffe which was to be conducted on the strictest Church principles, and provided for the education of the children on Sundays as well as on week-days, and he expressly stipulated that they should be present at every service held in the Church. There is hardly a Catechising. Then, again, the duty of public catechising every Sunday not only young children, but also servants and apprentices, according to the 59th Canon, was continually being impressed upon the clergy. bishop's charge in the later part of the seventeenth and the earlier part of the eighteenth century which does not lay stress upon the performance of this duty. It was performed in far more cases than is commonly supposed, sometimes after the sermon, sometimes instead of the sermon, every Sunday afternoon. Thus at Epworth Samuel Wesley carefully kept it up until his death in 1735. Bishop Wilson, in the Isle of Man, exacted a fine from those who did not attend. The Manx discipline was not enforced in the adjacent Isle of Great Britain, but episcopal inquisition was not exercised in vain. Thus religious instruction in its most regular and canonical form was not wanting in the days before Sunday Schools, and Sunday Schools themselves, though the name was not known, certainly existed in fact before 1780. In some cases instruction was given in the parvise, that is, the room over the church porch, either by the clergy themselves or by their deputies. The first Sunday School, actually so called, was established, so far as can be ascertained, by a clergyman, whose creed was anything but orthodox, Theophilus Lindsey. This was in 1765. There was also certainly one which had the name, in 1769, at High Wycombe, which was established by a pious lady named Hannah Ball. And there were others. Robert Raikes. Thomas about it. Stock. This preliminary sketch is not intended to detract from the merits of the good man who, if not the actual originator, was at any rate the first to bring prominently before the public the scheme which has ever since formed so essential a feature in all parochial organisations. Robert Raikes (1735-1811) was the proprietor of a Gloucester newspaper. Being much distressed at the rude and noisy behaviour of the children in the streets of Gloucester, he spoke to one of the clergy, Thomas Stock, then the curate and afterwards Rector of St. John the Baptist, Gloucester, Due justice has perhaps never been done to this good clergyman, who was the first suggester of the Sunday School scheme, though he would never have spread the idea but for Raikes, who had peculiar opportunities of making it known. Stock's own simple and modest account of the matter is as follows: "Mr. Raikes, meeting me one day by accident at my own door, and in the course of conversation lamenting the deplorable state of the lower classes of mankind, took particular notice of the situation of the poorer children. I had made, I replied, the same observation, and told him if he would accompany me into my own parish we would make some attempts to remedy the evil. We immediately proceeded to the business, and procuring the names of about ninety children, placed them under the care of four persons for a stated number of hours on the Sunday. As minister of the parish, I took upon me the superintendence of the schools and one-third of the expense. The progress of this institution throughout the kingdom is XIX ROBERT RAIKES 301 justly to be attributed to the constant representations which Mr. Raikes made in his own paper, the Gloucester Journal, of the benefits which he perceived would probably arise from it." The inscription on Stock's tomb in his church states that he and Raikes "established and supported the four original Sunday Schools in this parish and in St. Catherine's in 1780," which is, it will be observed, a year earlier than the date commonly given. It might well take a year in those days, when news travelled slowly, to make known an institution only established in a provincial town. Raikes survived Thomas Stock nearly thirty years, long enough to see his scheme adopted throughout the length and breadth of the land. It was not his fault that the clergy did not have their full share of credit in floating the scheme. He wrote in the Gloucester Journal of November 3, 1783: "Some of the clergy in different parts of this country, bent upon attempting a reform among the children of the lower class, are establishing Sunday Schools for rendering the Lord's Day subservient to the ends of instruction, which has hitherto been prostituted to bad purposes. Farmers and other inhabitants of the towns and villages complain that they receive more injury in their property on the Sabbath than all the week besides; this in a great measure proceeds from the lawless state of the younger class, who are allowed to run wild on that day, free from every restraint. To remedy this evil, persons duly qualified are employed to instruct those that cannot read, and those that may have learned to read are taught the Catechism and conducted to Church. By thus keeping their minds engaged, the day passes profitably and not disagreeably." From this account it will be gathered that Raikes was himself a loyal churchman. He was a regular communicant at Gloucester Cathedral, and we can well understand the annoyance which his son felt on hearing it reported that his father had been a dissenter, a report which he somewhat indignantly contradicted. Possibly the idea may have arisen because the Sunday School scheme was warmly taken up by the Methodists. But it must be remembered that in those days the Methodists were distinctly and avowedly a part of the Church. The movement spread widely and rapidly. John Wesley, |