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thou sittest in thine house, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." And that this commandment was not intended to be set aside, but rather confirmed with a renewed sanction, in the practical economy of the Christian dispensation, is rendered certain by the peculiarly strong yet tender emphasis with which our Lord-resenting the officious and mistaken attempt made in one instance, on the part of His disciples, to exclude young children from His notice-delivered to them this benignant and authoritative charge: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God." And certainly this is still farther strengthened by the remarkable fact, that He required it of Peter, as one proof of the love which he professed to Him,-because one part of his great duty,-that, whilst feeding His "sheep," he should not forget to feed His "lambs."

"It is

We find, accordingly, that "the Christians (of the first century) took all possible care to accustom their children to the study of the Scriptures, and to instruct them in the doctrines of their holy religion; and schools were everywhere erected for this purpose, even from the very commencement of the Christian church."* Such is the statement made by Mosheim. And the statement of "the learned Joseph Bingham" is still more full and explicit, not only as to the adoption of this practice by the early Christian churches, but also as to its continuance, or its revival where it would appear to have been neglected, some centuries afterwards. observable," he says, "that in the primitive church not only men and women, but children, were encouraged and trained up, from their infancy, to the reading of the holy Scriptures. And the catechumens were not only admitted to some of the prayers of the church peculiarly appropriated to their condition, but also obliged to learn the Scriptures, as part of their discipline and instruction. Of this we have undoubted evidence from many instances of their practice. Eusebius remarks on the great care of Leonides the martyr, and father of Origen, (born A.D. 185,) that he made him learn the Scriptures before he set him to the study of the liberal arts and polite learning. And Socrates (the ecclesiastical historian) makes the like observation upon the education of Eusebius, (Bishop of Emessa,) who was born of noble parentage, that he was first taught the holy Scriptures from his infancy, and then human learning. And Sozomen, in relating the same story, observes that this was done κarà máτpiov čôos, according to the custom of the country;' which shows that it was no singular instance, but a general practice, to bring children up, from their infancy, to the use of the holy Scriptures. It is noted by the same writer, and also by Palladius, of Marcus the hermit, that he was so expert in the Scriptures when he was but a youth, that he could repeat all the Old and New Testament without book. And it is observable that, as there were many catechetic schools in those times, for explaining the Scriptures to the catechumens, so there were also schools appointed, to instruct the youth in the knowledge of the Scriptures. When Gregory, the Apostle of the Armenians, first converted that nation, (early in the fourth century,) he set up schools in every city, and masters over them, to teach the Armenian children to read the Bible. And, when Valens, the Arian Emperor, (some years afterwards,) banished Protogenes, the Scribe, to Antinoë in Thebais, in the utmost parts of Egypt, he, finding the greatest part of the city to be Heathens, set up a charity-school among them, and taught them the holy Scriptures, dictating

* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist., cent. i., chap. 3, sect. 7.

to them in writing short-hand David's Psalms, and making them learn such doctrines of the apostolical writings as were proper for them to understand; by which means he brought many both of the children and parents over to the Christian faith."*

Happy had it been for the world, if the zeal thus manifested by the worthies of the earlier churches, for the religious education of young persons, had continued. But the controversies which distracted the church, and the general decay of evangelical truth and vital godliness, acted as a blight on such exertions; and ages of darkness immediately followed, during which but few (if any) traces of attention to this duty are to be found. The schools originally established were to a great extent superseded by others in connexion with monasteries; not much to the general advantage, as to the maintenance and spread either of learning or religion. For it was soon found that even secular learning, if freely diffused amongst the laity, must greatly interfere with the objects of a Church acting on the principle that "ignorance is the mother of devotion ;" and the same Church was equally sagacious to discover that, at all events, the general spread of scriptural knowledge could not be otherwise than absolutely fatal to those objects. The consequence was, that "the whole treasury of knowledge was locked up from the eyes of the people. Schools confined to cathedrals and monasteries, and exclusively designed for the purposes of religion," (and that in a mutilated and corrupted form,) "afforded no opportunities or encouragement to the laity; and the very use of letters, as well as books, was forgotten. For many centuries, to sum up the account of ignorance in a word, it was rare for a layman, of whatever rank, to know how to sign his name." And, even to so late a period as the middle of the fourteenth century, there were Kings and Emperors equally illiterate. "The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa could not read; (Struvius, Corpus Hist. German., tom. i., p. 377 ;)—nor John, King of Bohemia; (Sismondi, tom. v., p. 205 ;)-nor Philip the Hardy, King of France, although the son of St. Louis. (Velly, tom. vi., p. 426.)— Their charters, till the use of seals became general, were subscribed with the mark of the cross. Still more extraordinary it was, to find one who had any tincture of learning. Even admitting every indistinct commendation of monkish biographers, (with whom a knowledge of church music would pass for literature,) we could not make out (even) a very short list of scholars. None certainly were more distinguished as such, than Charlemagne and Alfred. But the former, unless we reject a very plain testimony, was incapable of writing. Contracts were made verbally, for want of notaries capable of drawing up charters; and these, when written, were frequently barbarous and ungrammatical to an incredible degree." +

Such was the general state of things amongst the people, induced mainly by the neglect of the Church to make adequate provision for religious and general instruction. And by a retribution, the most remarkable in its character, and the most extensive in its range, that has occurred in the history of the world, the mischief which the Clergy thus inflicted on the people, recoiled upon themselves ;-the light which they so criminally "put under a bushel," very soon becoming, from that very circumstance, almost as useless to them, as to the world, from which it was their object to

* Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, book xiii., cap. iv., sect. 9. + Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chap. ix.,

part 1.

withdraw its shining. "Even the Clergy," says Hallam,*" were for a long period not very materially superior, as a body, to the uninstructed laity. An inconceivable cloud of ignorance overspread the whole face of the Church, hardly broken by a few glimmering lights, who owe almost the whole of their distinction to the surrounding darkness. For some considerable intervals scarcely any monument of literature has been preserved, except a few jejune chronicles, the vilest legends of saints, or verses equally destitute of spirit and metre. In almost every Council the ignorance of the Clergy forms a subject of reproach. It is asserted by one held in 992, that scarcely a single person was to be found in Rome itself, who knew the first elements of letters. Not one Priest of a thousand in Spain, about the age of Charlemagne, could address a common letter of salutation to another. And, in England, Alfred declares that he could not recollect a single Priest south of the Thames, (the most civilised part of England,) at the time of his accession, who could understand the ordinary prayers, or could translate Latin into his mother tongue."

Still, as in the worst times of the Jewish Theocracy, so in the darkest ages of the Christian church, there was "a remnant" of those who mourned over prevailing evils; and, amidst the general appearance of spiritual death and desolation, there were some signs of life, and some struggling aspirations after a better state of things. Thus, in the sixth General Council, held at Constantinople, A.D. 681, a canon was adopted to the effect" that Presbyters in country towns and villages should have schools, to teach all such children as were sent to them; for which they should exact no money, nor take any thing, except the parents of the children thought fit to make them a charitable present, by way of voluntary oblation." And another canon, adopted in the same Council, speaks of schools in churches and monasteries, subject to the Bishop's care and direction: "Whence," says Bingham,t "we may conclude that schools" (that is, charity-schools for children) "were anciently very common appendants both of cathedral and country churches." "In a synod that was held at Cloveshow or Clyff, under Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 747, it was ordained, among other things, that those Priests who did not yet understand the Creed and the Lord's Prayer should both learn them themselves, and teach them to others in their mother tongue; which, though it be a lamentable proof of the ignorance of that age, yet it is to be hoped it produced some good effect upon those that needed it, and particularly upon those of the younger sort. However it were, it doth appear that in after-times the concernments of the younger sort came more particularly to be considered, and the instruction of them to be looked upon as a thing which the Church thought itself concerned to intend.”‡ The Rules made for the establishment of charity-schools, in the Council of Constantinople above mentioned, "were renewed in several Councils under Charles the Great, and the following Princes. Particularly in the (second) Council of Chalons, (A.D. 813,) it was appointed that Bishops should set up schools, to teach both grammar and the knowledge of the Scriptures."§ In the Council of Langres, (A.D. 859,) one of the most remarkable of the canons adopted is to this effect :-"That they (the Princes) shall be desired,

* View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chap. ix., part i. + Antiquities of the Christian Church, book viii., cap. vii., sect. 12.

Towerson's Introduction to his Explication to the Catechism of the Church of England, p. x.

§ Bingham, book xiii., chap. iv., sect. 9.

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and the Bishops earnestly exhorted, to erect public schools, for the teaching of the holy Scriptures and human learning, wherever there shall be found persons capable of instructing; as hath been done by the preceding Emperors, to the great advantage of the Church; whereas, at present," say the Council, we see with sorrow, the true knowledge of the Scripture is so decayed, that hardly any sign thereof is remaining."* In the Council of Toul, or Savoniéres, (held in the same or the following year,) the same canon was renewed. And though at a later period, and especially after the commencement of what is usually called the "revival of literature," the schools which were established by canonical authority, and connected with churches, 66 were (chiefly) ecclesiastical schools, and extrinsic study was watched with some suspicion," yet the educational necessities of the poor were not altogether overlooked; and in some instances they were especially provided for. Thus, in the General Council in the Lateran Church at Rome, (A.D. 1179,) it was declared-" that the Church, like a pious mother, ought to provide for the needy, both those things which are necessary for the body, and those which tend to the progress of the mind. And, lest the opportunity of reading and improvement should be withheld from the poor, who had no paternal wealth to assist them, it directs that in every cathedral there should be a master, to teach the Ecclesiastics of that church, and also poor scholars, gratis; to whom a competent maintenance should be allowed; so that he might be relieved from the pressure of want, and that the way to instruction might be fully open to the scholars."§

The instances thus cited suffice to show that, whatever may have been the practical value of the schools to which they refer, as to the religious training of young persons generally, and the connexion of such training with secular instruction, the principle of a standing obligation on the church at large to institute and maintain the means of such training and instruction in conjunction with each other,for the laity as well as for the Clergy, and for the poor as well as for the rich,-was never wholly lost sight of, even in the worst ages of the Church; and that, in its best days, this principle was made generally prominent.

And now, to limit our view to later times and to our own country, it may be observed, that, at the Protestant Reformation, the revival of evangelical truth was immediately connected with a corresponding revival of a system of general education, including persons of all classes, down to the very lowest orders of society. In England, to say nothing of the higher class of grammar-schools, most of which were founded about that time, other free schools were at the same time very extensively established; special regard being intended by their founders to be paid to the religious, as well as other, qualifications of the persons to be employed as masters. And it is really edifying to witness the devout and energetic earnestness with which our English Protestant Reformers gave their thoughts and efforts to this business. So early as the year 1540, we find Bishop Coverdale making it the subject of his prayer, in the following terms :-"O grant unto all high governors and magistrates, that whereas the goods of monasteries have heretofore served the wicked lusts of unprofitable priests and vain religious,||

* See Fleury's Eccles. Hist., book 49.

+ Fleury, ibid.

Turner's History of England, book vi., chap. 2.

§ Centur. Magdeburg., cent. xii., cap. ix., p. 637.

"What the Protestants would call a fanatic, is, in the Roman Church, a religious of such an order." (Addison.)

VOL. VII.-FOURTH SERIES.

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they may, after their decease, be converted by the said rulers into good and godly uses; as, provision for the poor, for widows and fatherless children, for bringing up of youth in the Scriptures of God and in honest necessary sciences." And he then adds: "Good virtuous teachers bring forth a virtuous and godly people." * About the same time, Becon, Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, says: "It shall profit not a little unto true godliness, to have modest, learned, grave, and godly schoolmasters in every country, that may bring up youth, not only in the knowledge of human letters and civil manners, but also in the fear of the Lord; that they may learn, even from their cradles, as they say, to know God, to understand His word, to honour Him aright, and to walk in His holy pathways." And, twenty years afterwards, we find the same eminent and holy man religiously intent on the same object. "Let the magistrates," says he, "erect and set up schools, where the youth of the Christian commonweal may be brought up in good letters and godly manners, but specially in the knowledge of God's true religion. And, that they may be the more able to do this, the magistrate must diligently provide that the books both of the Old and New Testament be read every day to the young ones, with some short exposition of the same; that they may learn holy letters from their infancy, as we read of Bishop Timothy, and not spend all their childhood or young age in man's doctrine. And, that they may wax the sooner ripe in the knowledge of godliness, it shall be convenient that the scholars do oftentimes repair unto the temples, to hear the sermons, and afterwards to render accounts of those things that they have heard, lest they become forgetful hearers. And it shall not a little profit unto the increase of godly knowledge, that the scholars have sometimes some theme of the holy Scripture offered unto them privately in their schools, and so prove their wits, what they are able to do in dilating that text, sometime by tongue, sometime by pen. And, that those things may be done of the scholars with the more fruit, a Christian magistrate must diligently provide, that such as be chosen and appointed schoolmasters be men of gravity, wisdom, knowledge, learning, of an honest and godly conversation, of an approved life, of uncorrupt manners, diligent and painful in their office, favourers of true and pure religion, earnest lovers of God's word; and such in all points as may be to their scholars, not only teachers of good and godly doctrine, but also example-givers of honest and virtuous conversation. And, that the schoolmasters may be the better encouraged to do their office, and to bring up the youth of the Christians in the nurture and doctrine of the Lord, it shall be necessary that the magistrates provide liberally for the teachers and bringers-up of youth, that they may have whereof honestly to live. For, if we think it a thing unfitting and unreasonable, not to provide for our swineherds and shepherds, which attend upon our brute beasts; what a shame were it to leave our schoolmasters, which bring up our children, made like to the image of God, in virtue and learning, unprovided!-These things, if they were diligently considered and put in practice, would make a flourishing Christian community; so that God would be truly honoured, and His holy church garnished with all kinds of good and holy officers." In like manner Bishop Latimer, in his Sermon on the Plough, says,-" For the love of God, appoint teachers and schoolmasters, you that have charge of youth;

* See Coverdale's Fruitful Lessons. + Early Writings of Thomas Becon. Becon's Catechism, part vi.

Works, vol. i., p. 360. (Parker Society.) (Parker Society's edit., p. 260.)

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