In the ordinary histories of this excellent establishment, it is commonly observed that there are traces remaining of a seminary connected with , earlier than that founded by Dean Colet; but without giving any particular information concerning it, or even accurately distinguishing it from that much more recent foundation, although they were existing at the same time and were altogether different. The only full and satisfactory account of the Ancient School, is contained in an unpublished well-written series of letters and documents, printed some years since, relating to a persevering and meritorious, although an unsuccessful, attempt to recover the benefits of that school to those for whom they were originally intended; the boys of the Cathedral choir.[a] — So early as the century the Papal injunctions required that every Conventual Church should have a school adjoining to it, under its immediate care and control; whence originated the ancient Catholic proverb, "wherever there is a monastery there is a school." It is not improbable that the foundation of such seminaries in Britain was contemporaneous with that of the Churches of which they formed a part; and such an antiquity seems to be hinted at in that Decree of the Eleventh General Lateran Council, A.D. , which ordains that every Cathedral Church should have its schoolmaster, as, it is added, has been accustomed.[b] —Of the establishment connected with in London, the notice now extant appears to be a charter of Richard De Belmeis, or Beaumes, Bishop of London, about A.D. , granting to Hugh the Schoolmaster and his successors,

The principal ancient account of the nature and government of the original School at , is contained in the old Latin record of the constitutions and duties of the officers belonging to the Cathedral, printed by Sir William Dugdale;[d]  the Chancellor of which was the scribe and secretary of the Church and Chapter, and his office was conferred on him by giving and granting to him the school belonging to the choir. He was also called , or Master of the Schools, not only as being at the head of that attached to , but also as possessing the direction of all others within the City. His duty in the former character was especially to find a fit acting Master for the Grammar-School of , and, having presented him to the Dean and Chapter for approval, to give him possession of the office; and farther at his own expense to keep in repair the houses and buildings belonging to the school. The master thus appointed was to be a sober honest man, of good and laudable learning, who should instruct the boys, especially those belonging to the Church, in grammar, and set them an example of a good life, taking care not to deprave the minds of those little ones by any evil in word or deed, but with chaste language and conversation to train them up into holiness and the fear of God, and be unto them a master, not in grammar only, but also in virtue and piety. So scrupulously indeed was he required to watch over them, that the statutes direct him to place them under a proper conductor in their walks and in going to school.[e]  He was to all intents, adds Dr. Knight, the true Vice-Chancellor of the Church, and was sometimes so called; and this was the original meaning of the offices of Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor in the Universities, the great schools of the kingdom, of which they are the general and moral governors. The children of the ancient Cathedral choir had likewise extraordinary attention paid to their interest by several of the other Churchofficers: for the Precentor and Succentor were required to take care of their musical education, and their especial music-master to watch over their moral conduct whilst they were under his instruction; the Cardinals of the Choir superintended their behaviour and that of their masters during divine service, taught them their religious duties, and reported their progress to the Dean and Chapter; and that their classical learning might be ensured, the Almoner of the Church was bound by the statutes to have a clergyman resident in the Almonry to instruct the choristers in literature, or else he was to send them to School, to be taught by the Cathedral Schoolmaster.[f]  Even after they had lost their treble voices and could no longer sing, there was a provision made for completing their education by separate estates bequeathed for that purpose; and a later benefactor to the School founded Scholarships at Cambridge for the boys educated at .[g]  The revenues for the support of this establishment were also in all instances secured on landed property, and are endowments resting on the same authority as those from which the dignitaries of the Cathedral derive their emoluments.[h] 

Down to the beginning of the century, almost the only acts of public charity in England were the erecting and adorning of Churches, the foundation and endowment of monasteries and religious houses, the establishment of chantries for the dead, and the making of some provision for students in the Universities. At this period Dr. John Colet, Dean of , appears carefully to have considered the best means of securely investing and consecrating the ample estate which he possessed, in some extensive and perpetual charity which should be most generally useful and beneficial to the Church and nation of England: he having then no near relation living, though he had been the oldest of children. He was at length convinced that it would be the most effectually conducing to the restoration of learning to provide a Grammar-school for the instruction of youth, the seat of which he appears to have soon resolved should be in London, since that was not only his native City, but he was also the dignitary of the Metropolitan Cathedral there, and he found it in nothing more defective than public schools.[j]  "It may seem," says Fuller, "false Latin that this Colet, being Dean of Paul's, the school dedicated to St. Paul, and distanced but the breadth of a street from ,—should not intrust it to the inspection of his successors, the Dean and Chapter of , but committed it to the care of

In stating the exact period at which the School of Dean Colet was established, Dr. Knight remarks that "our common historians have differed so much in the date of its foundation, taking their liberty within the space of or years;" and he assigns as a reason the time occupied in buying and clearing the ground, erecting the new pile of buildings, providing of suitable masters, and settling the endowment in trust for ever. He considers that it was begun, and even greatly advanced, the death of Henry VII., , previous to which it is actually placed by Alexander Nevile;[c]  whilst other authorities record it as having taken place at various periods between and . The institution of the School, however, may doubtless be most accurately referred to the year -, namely within the months of the latter year, wherein it is recorded by several of the best contemporaneous historians; the edifice being finished in the course of , as it was stated in the inscription on the front.[d] 

The account by Erasmus above referred to is the best and most interesting description of Dean Colet's School, since the writer was in England at the period of its completion, and living in the greatest familiarity with the Founder. It is contained in a Latin epistle to Jodocus Jonas, from which the following extract is translated. —"Upon the death of the father of Colet, when by right of inheritance he was possessed of a considerable sum of money, lest the keeping of it should corrupt his mind and turn it too much to the world, he laid out a great part of it in building a new School in the Churchyard of St. Paul, dedicated to the Child Jesus; a magnificent fabric: to which he added handsome dwelling-houses for the several masters, to whom he assigned ample salaries, that they might teach a certain number of boys gratuitously. He divided the School into apartments. The is the porch or entrance for , (or children to be instructed in the principles of religion); and no child is admitted there, unless he can already read and write. The apartment is for the lower boys, who are taught by the , (or usher). The is for those who are more learned, (under the head-master). Which former parts of the School are divided from the other by a curtain, which can be drawn or undrawn at pleasure. Over the Master's chair is seated a figure of the Child Jesus, of excellent work, in the act of teaching; whom all the assembly, both at coming in and going out of school salute with a short hymn.[e]  There is also a representation of God the Father, saying 'Hear ye him:' but these words were written there at my recommendation.[f]  The last apartment is a little chapel adapted to divine service. Throughout the School there are neither corners nor hiding-places; nor anything like a cell or closet. The boys have each their distinct forms or benches rising in regular gradations and spaces over another.[g]  Of these every class contains

Another account of School, also contemporaneous with its establishment, is that which was given by Colet himself to his Head-master, William Lily, prefixed to his book of Statutes, which is inscribed in Latin "This little book I, John Colet, gave into the hands of Master Lily the , in the year of our Lord MCCCCCXVIII. The Prologue of John Colet, Founder of the School, by his own hand."—"John Colett, the sonne of Henrye Colett, Dean of Paule's, desiring nothyng more than education and bringing uppe children in good maners and literature, in the Yere of our Lorde a M. fyve hundreth, and twelfe, bylded a Schole in the est ende of Paulis Churche, of cliii boys,[c]  to be taught fre in the same. And ordeyned there a Maister, and a Surmaister, and a Chapelyn, with sufficiente and perpetuale stipendes ever to endure; and sett patrones and defenders, governors and rulers, of that same Schoole, the most honest and faithful Fellowshipe of the Mercers of London. And for because nothing can continue longe and endure in good ordre without Lawes and Statutes, I, the said John, have expressed and shewed my minde what I wolde shoulde be truly and diligentlye observed and kepte of the sayde Maister, and Surmaister, and Chapelyn, and of the Mercers Governours of the Schole; that in this Boke may appere to what intent I founde this Schole.—In the Grammar-Scole founded in the churche-yard of Paule's at the est ende, in the Yeare of our Lorde , by John Colet, Deane of the same Churche in the Honour of Christ Jesus ,[d]  and of his Blessed Mother Marie: In that scole shall be firste an Hyghe Maister."[e] — The Statutes which immediately follow this Prologue are too long to be inserted entire in this work, and as they may be found printed at length in various authorities,[f]  an abridgement of their contents will be sufficient for the present historical notices.—

THE head-MASTER of the School it is ordered shall govern the whole establishment; and be "a man whole in body, honest, and virtuous, and learned in good and clean Latin literature, and also in Greek, if such may be gotten; a wedded man, single man, or a priest that hath no benefice with cure or service, that may let the duty of the school." To be elected by the Wardens and Court of the Mercers, with the advice of such learned men as they can procure, in the school-house, when he is to receive a charge stating that the place is no perpetuity, but dependent upon his good conduct, in which he is to be examined by the Mercers yearly at Candlemas; when he is to have notice to quit, if there be occasion, and if he himself desire to resign he is to give months notice to the Surveyors of the School. His wages are to be a mark, , a week, and a livery-gown of nobles, , delivered in cloth. His lodgings are to be free at the School, and he is also to have Dean Colet's tenement at Stebunhithe to resort unto; but not to be absent from the School more than days in the year, either together or separate. In case of incurable sickness after long service, he is to have for a living, but no diseased person is to be at elected into the office.

The SUR-MASTER is directed to be virtuous in living, well-lettered, to teach under the Head-Master, and by his direction, and either a single man, wedded, or priest that hath no benefice with cure or service: to be whole in body, and appointed, as the room shall be void, by the High-Master who is to give him a charge similar to his own, and to be confirmed by the Surveyors of the School. Lodgings are assigned him in the Old'Change, and his wages are fixed at a week, with a livery-gown of nobles delivered in cloth. He is also to be absent not more than days in the year, to fill the place of the Head-Master in his absence or sickness,[g]  and to have preference in case of his death for election to the situation, if he be approved of and found worthy of it.

Concerning the CHAPLAIN of this establishment it is ordered that "there shall be in the School a priest, who daily as he can be disposed shall sing mass in the Chapel of the School,[a]  and pray for the children to prosper in good life and literature: that he should be some good, honest, and virtuous, man; to be chosen by the Wardens and Assistants of the Mercers: to learn himself, or, if learned, to help to teach the school if it seem convenient to the High-Master: to have no benefice with cure of souls, nor any other office or occupation: and to teach the children the Catechism, Instruction of the Articles of the Faith, and the Commandments in English. His wages to be by the year, and a livery-gown of to be delivered in cloth.[b]  His chamber and lodging to be in the new house in the Old 'Change, or in the Master's lodging. His absence to be once in the year by leave of the Surveyors; to have his wages in sickness; and to be expelled for misconduct, after admonition and days' notice.

With respect to the SCHOLARS of the establishment, the Statutes order that children of all nations and countries indifferently, are to be taught, to the number of , that of the seats in the building: the Master to admit them as they be offered, but to see that they can say the Catechism, and also that they can read and write competently; when they were to pay for entering their names, the money to be given to the poor scholar who swept the school. To come in the morning at o'clock, in summer and winter; remain until : return again at ; and finally depart at : and thrice in the day, namely in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, they were prostrate to recite the prayers contained in a table in the school.[c]  No tallow candles, but only wax to be used.[d]  Neither meat, drink, nor bottles, to be brought thither; nor any breakfasts or drinkings to be used in the time of learning. To use no cock-fighting, nor riding about of victory, nor disputing at St. Bartholomew;[e]  and not to have any Remedyes, or Play-days granted by the Master, under a penalty of , unless desired by the King, an Archbishop, or a Bishop in person. The children every Childermas Day to go to hear the Child Bishop Sermon, and afterwards to be at the High Mass and each offer a penny to the Child Bishop: and with them the Masters and Surveyors of the School.[f] 

In general processions, when warned, they were to go and [a]  together soberly, and not sing out, but say devoutly Psalms with the Litany. If any child admitted here go to any other school to learn there, such child for no man's suit shall be thereafter received into this School, which shall be shewed to those who come with him to be entered.—The following "honest and admirable rules," as they are called by Knight, prescribed by Dean Colet for the admission and continuance of boys into his school, contain some other particulars relating to the scholars.—"The Master shal reherse these articles to them that offer their chyldren, on this wyse here followinge.—If youre chylde can rede and wryte[b]  Latyn and Englyshe suffycyently, so that he be able to rede and wryte his own lessons, than he shall be admitted into the Schole for a scholar.—If youre chylde, after resonable season proved, be founde unapte and unable to lernynge, that ye, warned thereof, shal take hym awaye, that he occupy not oure rowme in vayne.[c] —If he be apt to lerne, ye shall be contente that he continue here tyl he have competent literature.—If he be absente vi days, and in the mean season ye show not cause reasonable, (reasonable cause is alonly sekenes,) than his rowm to be voyde, without he be admitted agayne and pay iiii—Also, after cause shewed, if he contenewe to be absente tyl the weke of admyssion in the nexte quarter, and then ye shewe not the contenuance of his sekeness, then his rowme to be void, and he none of the Schole tyl he be admitted agayne, and pay iiii for wryting his name.—Also if he fall thryse into absence, he shall be admytted no more.—Your chylde shal on Chyldermas daye wayte upon the Boy Byshop at Poule's, and offer there.—Also ye shal fiynde him waxe in wynter. Also ye shall find him convenyent bokes for his lernynge.—If the offerer be content with these articles, than let his chylde be admytted."[d] 

As to "what shall be taught," in School, the Statutes only express the Founder's wish that the scholars should be always instructed in good literature, both Latin and Greek; and good authors, such as have the Roman eloquence joined with wisdom: especially Christian authors,[e]  that wrote their wisdom with clean and chaste Latin, either in verse or prose. The order of education was therefore directed to be the Catechism in English; then the Accidens made by Colet himself, "or some other yf any be better to the purpose, to induce children more spedely to Laten speeche;" then the , composed by Erasmus at Colet's request, with the of the same author; after which were to succeed the Christian Classics, as Lactantius, Prudentius, Proba, Sedulius, Juvencus, and Baptista Mantuanus; "with suche other as shal be thought convenient, and most to purpose unto the true Laten speeche: all barbary, all corruption, all Laten adulterate, which ignorant blinde foles brought into this worlde, and with the same hath dystained and poysonyd the olde Laten speeche, and the vereye Romane tongue, whiche, in the tyme of Tully, and Sallust, and Virgil, and Terence, was usid;[f]  which also Sainte Jerome, and Sainte Ambrose, and Sainte Austen, and many holy doctors lerned in their tymes. I saye that

The concluding Statutes refer to the government of the institution as vested in the Company of Mercers, which is to have all the charge, and care, and rule of the School; and to elect every year out of the Company honest and substantial men to be Surveyers of the same, who are to take upon them all the affairs of the establishment for that year, in the name of the whole Fellowship. days before the feasts of Christmas, Easter, St. John the Baptist, and Michaelmas, they are directed to come into the Scoool, and pay the Masters and Chaplain their quarterly wages; and at the latter end of the year to give them their liveries in cloth: and once in the year, namely about Candlemas, days before or after, to give up their accounts to the Master, Wardens, and Assistants, of the Company: when "a little dinner is to be made," and an account required "of the receiving of all the estate of the Sch ool." The Master-Warden is then to receive a noble, , the other Wardens , the Surveyers and for their riding to visit the lands the Clerk of the Mercery , with some other gifts. "That which was spared that day in rewards or charges, to be put into the treasury of the School: what remained to be given to the Fellowship of the Mercery, to the maintaining and repairing of all belonging to the School from time to time. The surplusage, above repairs and casualties, to be put into a coffer of iron given by Colet, standing in the Mercers Hall; and there from year to year to remain apart by itself, that it might appear how the school of itself maintained itself. And at length over and above the whole livelihood, if the said School should grow to any farther charge to the Mercery, that then it might also appear, to the laud, and praise, and mercy, of the said Fellowship. Lastly, the Founder left it to the Mercers Company to add to and diminish from this book, and to supply in it every default; and also to declare in it every obscurity and darkness, as time and place and just occasion shall require. The volume then concludes with a statement of the produce of "the landes of the scole," of which after all deductions "remayneth clere, cxviii iiii viii ob." "The charges ordinare out payde yerely," as mentioned in the Statutes, amount to lxxix viii iiiid.; and the difference is expressed "So resteth to the reparations, suyts, casualties, and all other charges extraordinarye, xxxviii xv iii ob."[a] —""

A very important and interesting feature in the history of School, is the production of those excellent elementary works which were composed expressly for the scholars of this establishment; some of which are still retained in use in almost their original forms. The of these was the well-known book by Colet himself, of the Rudiments of Latin Grammar, with an abridgement of the principles of religion as taught in the School; in which, says Strype, he put those rudiments into an easier and apter method for learning than any were before:[b]  which he recommended in a short elegant Latin epistle to William Lily, the Master, to teach it to the children; dated from his own house the kalends () of .[c]  This was succeeded by another small work also attributed to Colet, on the Construction of the Parts of Speech, and likewise presented to Lily with a Latin letter, dated from his own house, A.D. . It generally passes under the name of the Latin , because with some alterations and great additions, it constitutes that part of the work called Lily's Grammar; but in consequence of these improvements, the name of the real author has become exceedingly doubtful. Erasmus states that Dean Colet charged Lily to amend and improve this treatise, and then return it to him, after which being desirous that it should be rendered still more perfect, he sent it to Erasmus, then perhaps the best grammatical critic in Europe, who made so many alterations in it that neither of the authors was willing to assume it for his own. It was therefore published by Erasmus in ,[d]  with a prefatory Latin epistle dated the

Lily also composed for Dean Colet's School those Latin verses usually called "," from the commencing words, containing short rules for distinguishing the genders of nouns, which were also printed after his death, with large annotations, by Thomas Robertson,[c]  subsequently Dean of Durham, a man of considerable learning in both Greek and Latin literature, and of the most celebrated of his age in England. The verses which immediately precede the last , have been added since his time. There is much uncertainty as to the author of the metrical rules for the genders of Heteroclite Nouns, usually called from their commencement, "" since it is evident from the concluding verses of the , that Lily intended to have composed such a work.[d]  Robertson states, however, that he either did not execute it, or did not design to publish it, and that therefore he undertook it himself, and drew up those rules which are now in use; his own edition of being entitled ""[e]  The other grammatical verses concerning the Preterites and Supines of Verbs, generally known by the name of "," from the words, were composed by Lily, and were also included in the annotations of Robertson with some few variations. In all these verses Knight observes that the rules were made more compendious and the lines smoother than they had been in any other system. Another Latin poem, likewise by Lily,[f]  inserted in this part of the grammar, is that series of excellent moral rules entitled "Carmen De Moribus;" more commonly called, "," from the words with which it commences. That part of the Latin Syntax "De Figuris," was taken by Erasmus partly from Peter Mosellanus, as to the verbal figures; and partly from Gerard Listrius, a learned physician, his friend, as to the figures of construction, with some alterations: and in some of the older editions of the Latin Grammar those parts have the names of their respective authors attached.[g]  The Prosody was drawn up by Robertson, and was originally entitled "-

Such were the several parts of the celebrated work usually called Lily's Grammar, most of which were originally published in separate editions either in London or abroad, before the work received the King's sanction for general use. There were in England contemporaneous with Lily several persons celebrated for their scholastic learning and their works on philological literature; as John Holt, John Stanbridge, Robert Whyttynton, created Doctor of Grammar and Rhetoric at Oxford, William Horman, Thomas Linacre, &c. and their many and various compositions, with others in previous use, caused a great diversity in the books employed for teaching. The preference and esteem, however, in which the Grammer of Lily was held, was very early shewn by a letter from Cardinal Wolsey to the Master of his Free-School founded at Ipswich in , recommending the use of Lily's rules.[c]  At length, says the Address to the Reader prefixed to the English Introduction, "the diuersitie of grammars is well and profitably taken awaie by the King's Maiestie's wisedome, who, foreseeing the inconvenience and favourably providing the remedie, caused kind of grammar, by sundrie learned men to be diligently drawn, and so to be set out, only everywhere to be taught, for the use of learners and for the hurt in changing of schoolemaisters." "This seems," adds Ward, "to be what is meant by Sir Thomas Elyot when speaking of that Prince (Henry VIII.), he sais that he hath not himself disdained to be the chiefe authour and setter-forthe of an Introduction into grammar for the childrene of his louing subiectes." The time when this work was completed has been differently related by writers; Thomas Hayne places it in the year , and Anthony à Wood in . But neither of these accounts can be right; for I have seen a beautiful copy printed upon vellum and illuminated, Anno , in quarto: and it may be doubted whether were the edition, from what is said by Sir Thomas Elyot; the book whence that passage is taken having been published in the year ."[d]  The Grammar was not only thus established, by royal authority, but was for a considerable time enforced by the Bishops at their visitations, enquiring of the schoolmasters in their diocese whether they taught any other.[e]  At length, however, as philological studies became more cultivated both in England and abroad, the defects of the work were pointed out and many models produced for its amendment; and even some attempts were made in convocation for its revision.[f]  As the right of printing the authorised Grammar was given by royal license to certain proprietors, the patentees being desirous of improving the work solicited Dr. John Ward, Professor of Rhetoric in Gresham College, to prepare a new and accurate edition of it for publication. For this purpose, he states that they "collected together a great number of different

Another work, which was dedicated from its appearance to School, and which was long retained there, is the of Erasmus, who in an expostulary epistle to Colet gives an account of the manner in which he disposed of it to him. Walking day with him in his garden, Erasmus spake of the great pains he had bestowed upon books , to form the style and assist the invention of young scholars; upon which the Dean asked him to dedicate them to the School at . Erasmus, however, declined, saying that the establishment was too poor to pay for them, and he required a patron with some money, since he had been at considerable cost in books, transcribers, &c., to which Colet replied that he was unable to afford him an adequate recompense for his labours, but that he would willingly give him angels (); and upon repeating the offer Erasmus accepted of it. Some time intervening between this agreement and the publication of the book, it appears that Colet forgot the agreement, and that the author recalled it to his memory by a humorous Latin letter; to which the Dean returned a very grave answer. He stated that he was indeed indebted to Erasmus, for that he owed him his whole self; though he remembered no such promise as that claimed of him: that his funds were then very low on account of his great expense about the School; and that he had not leisure to recollect himself. Erasmus replied by acknowledging the favours of Colet, modestly palliating his claim, and stating also the particular time and place when it was made; and soliciting payment as earnestly as he could for that which he would not call a debt, but a very seasonable bounty to him. He intimates also, that some friends of Colet thought him a little too frugal; which, if it were a fault, did not arise from any tenacious avarice in him, but diffidence; since he could not deny some confident petitioners, and was therefore unable to gratify those who deserved better of him. Colet now appears to have immediately satisfied Erasmus, who addressed the work to him in a very elegant Latin letter, dated London, the of the Calends of May (), .[a]  Erasmus also composed, or perhaps translated only, for School, at the desire of Colet, a small treatise of religious instruction in Latin verse, of a very plain and simple kind, entitled ; which Colet had drawn up in English, and prefixed to his Accidence. Dr. Knight observes that the name was afterwards adopted for that system of religious doctrine formed by the Convocation in the commencement of the Reformation, and approved by Henry VIII. called from the title anciently given to any little abridgment of the principles of religion.[b]  It may be properly noticed in this place that School was further indebted to Erasmus for procuring it the services of John Ritwyse, the Sur-Master, whom he found at , Cambridge, when Colet desired him to find him an usher, and whom he solicited and encouraged to undertake the office.[c] 

There are but very few particulars extant descriptive of the appearance of the original building erected for this School. In mentioning the establishment of seminaries in London, Stow observes that as divers of them became decayed by the suppression of those religious houses of which they were members, in the reign of Henry VIII., others were newly erected and founded instead of them. "As, namely, Paul's School, in place of an old ruined house, was builded in the most ample manner and largely endowed in the year , by John Colet, Doctor of Divinity and Dean of ."[d]  The Rev. John Strype, however, who acknowledges with gratitude his education in this School, gives some interesting particulars of its appearance before the Great Fire, and states that it was "built up again much after the same manner and proportion as it was before."[e]  "The Founder," says he, "delighted in Inscriptions and Mottoes, which he appointed to be set up in several parts and places of the School, as short and pithy intimations of his mind and intentions, which were all there remaining the Great Fire. Over the windows on the outside towards the street, were these words engraved in great capital letters SCHOLA CATECHIZATIONIS PVERORUM, IN CHRISTI OPT. MAX. FIDE ET BONIS LITERIS. Over the school door was INGRE- DERE VT PROFICIAS. Upon each window on the inside were to be read these words painted on the glass, AVT DOCE, AVT DISCE, AVT DISCEDE, suggesting to both scholar and teacher their duty or doom; which I remember the Upper-Master in my time used often to inculcate upon such scholars as were idle or negligent,

Mente Velis hâc lege recludor. Possis Adsis

In the school-room over the door was this inscription; PVERI IN HAC SCHOLA GRATIS ERVDIENDI C. L. III. TANTVM AD NVMERVM SEDIVM.[b] —At the upper end of the School facing to the door was a decent Cathedra, or chair, placed, somewhat advanced, for the High-Master to sit in when he pleased and to teach and dictate there. And over it was a lively effigies, and of exquisite art, of the head of Dr. Colet,[c]  cut as it seemed in either stone or wood: and over the head in capitals DEO OPT. MAX. TRINO ET VERI, JOHANNIS COLETVS, DEC. SANCTI PAVLI LONDIN. HANC SCHOLAM POSTIT. On which figure an excellent poet and once a scholar of this School made these verses:

Eloquio juvenes ubi Lillius polivit,

In Statuâ spiras, Magne COLETE tuâ.

Quam si Praxiteles fecisset magnus, et ille

Forsitan æquâsset, non superasset opus.

Hac Salvâ Statuâ, divina forma COLETI

Temporibus longis non peritura, manet.

Where Lily trained to grace his youthful bands.

Thy breathing Statue, Worthiest COLET, stands.

Which if the great Praxiteles had done,

Perchance his art had reached it, not outshone.

Here, COLET, then, thy holy form shall stay

Through time's long ages, never to decay.

But this figure was destroyed with the School in the Great Fire, yet was afterwards found in the rubbish by a curious man and searcher into the City antiquities: who observed and told me that it was cast and hollow, by a curious art now lost."[d] —The original edifice of this School was burned in the Fire of London, , probably on Tuesday, , when the conflagration attacked the Cathedral from Blackfriars and .[e]  Both the late and the present School, were erected upon the site of the ; though it appears from a passage in the , that there was almost a determination to rebuild it in some other place. . . Sir John Frederick and Sir Richard Ford "did talke of School, which they tell me must be taken away; and then I fear it will be long before another place, such as they say is promised, is found: but they do say that the honour of their Company is concerned in it, and that it is a thing they are obliged to do."—The only alteration in the site of the new erection, however, seems to have been bringing forward the front of it to be parallel with the eastern end of . The re-building of this edifice took place in ,[f]  under the

School, as rebuilt after the Great Fire, or rather as it appeared before the erection of the present edifice,[b]  was a long and low though stately building of stone, connecting the houses of the High-Master and Sur-Master at the north and south ends of it, as represented in the annexed Plate. The central building contained only series of large and lofty windows, with busts above and panels beneath them, raised a considerable height from the ground; the at each end being arched, surmounted by a frieze and ballustrades, ornamented with vases and busts; the spandrils being also decorated with carving in relievo. The centre windows were square, upon channelled and rusticated masonry, beneath a handsome pediment containing the arms of Dean Colet, in a cartouche shield,[c]  with a figure representing Learning standing on the apex. Along the frieze was sculptured the inscription which appeared upon the front of the original building. The dwellings at each end of the school were of brick, ornamented with stone window-cases, panels, bands, and quoins; they each consisted originally of stories above the basement; the windows in the centre being arched, and the remainder rectangular. A central arched window also formerly appeared over the cornice, supported by scrolls at the side, and crowned by a short ballustrade over the ridge of the roof; but in this was altered into square attic windows with a slated roof above them, as exhibited in the annexed view. Each of these dwellings contained a series of large and elegant apartments for the teachers; the Head-Master occupying the building on the north, and the Master that on the south, of the school. The house of the Master, called the Chaplain, was in the Old 'Change east of the building. At the south end of the new building was also constructed the Library, described by Malcolm in , as "a dark, diminutive, and dirty, room; where the books which compose it are covered with dust, and defaced by the boys with ink and erasures."[d]  The interior of the school-room was plain, large, and commodious, the principal ornaments being a semi-circular oaken canopy at the south end with pilasters; under which was placed the Head- Master's carved oaken chair, somewhat elevated, decorated with Dean Colet's arms and the crest of the Mercers' Company surrounded by flowers; the throne being inscribed "Intendas animum studiis et rebus honestis." In the centre on the wall above was a bust of the Founder, copied by Bacon from the ancient terra-cotta model; having on the right a white marble bust of Mr. George Thicknesse, formerly High-Master here, erected by the voluntary subscription of his scholars, to which has since been added on the left hand a bust of the late High-Master, Dr. Roberts, executed by Hickey. The ceiling was flat, slightly ornamented, and lighted by a circular lanthorn, and the walls were covered with wainscot to nearly half their height, the seats of the scholars, formed of the same material, being erected in rising tiers below them: they consisted however, of forms only, according to the arrangement of some other public schools; and Dr. Sleath stated to the Commissioners of Charities, that he had suggested it as a convenience for desks to be provided for the boys to write their exercises upon. The desks of the masters were in the centre of the area. At the door was inscribed the ancient motto formerly written upon the the windows, and over the seats were the numbers &c. of the classes, upon small square panels, almost close to the ceiling.[e]  The late Mr. Alderman Boydell presented the School with a series of the fine emblematical prints published by him, expressive of the honour and success attendant on industry and frugality, from the original pictures in . They are still preserved, though not now suspended in the School, which they were formerly used to decorate at the upper end on the Examination-day; but in consequence of the present arrangements for that ceremony the custom is discontinued. An inscription erected against the Head-Master's house stated that the building was "Repair'd and Beautify'd MDCCII. Sir Samuel Moyer, Master, &c. Aedes Preceptoris Grammatices."[f] 

In the Mercers' Company obtained an Act of Parliament "to enable the Trustees of School, in the City of London, to purchase buildings and land adjoining or near to the said School, for the better accommodation of the scholars, and for other improvements."[g]  The acquisitions made under this Act consisted of certain messuages and plots of ground on the western side of the Old 'Change, bought of the Corporation of London, for ; and of other premises in , bought of the Bishop of London, for

Of the modern arrangements of this School there remains but little to be stated, the ancient regulations never having been considerably altered.[b]  The admission of the scholars is in the Mercers' Company, the SurveyorAc- countant, of the Court of Assistants, being delegated to nominate during his year of office; and the original payment of on entrance, to the porter-boy, is the whole charge to which the schools are subjected, excepting for books. In consequence of a change made in the school-hours, little artificial light is required, and the Founder's directions, concerning wax-candles is therefore not often enforced: sometimes, however, lights are wanted, and then the boys bring with them wax-tapers; but in the depth of winter they come to school at and leave it at o'clock.[c]  Scholars are admitted to the age of , but at present none are eligible to an Exhibition if entered ; and none are expected to remain in the school after the birthday, though no time for superannuation is fixed by the statues. The Latin Grammar which is used, is Lily's Improved by Ward, and the Greek, Camden's, or the ; and the system of education is similar to that of other public schools, being strictly limited to classical instruction; but the Rev. Dr. Sleath, stated that he "thought it desirable, particularly since the alteration in the course of study at Oxford, that the mathematical instruction should be given, at the School."[d]  The Grand Examination, or Apposition, a term peculiar to School,[e]  of the scholars of the foundation, takes place after Easter, and occupies days; on the last of which the seniors of the Class recite their orations in Greek, Latin, and English, in commemoration of the Founder, previous to their entrance at of the Universities. The Captain of the School also quits it at the same season, and he is generally, though not consequently, appointed to of the Campden Exhibitions; as it "has now been ordered that it should be given to that boy who is recommended by the Examiners as the most worthy of it." Reward-books are also given to boy in each class. The Exhibitions are presented by the Trustees of School at Mercers' Hall, at a Court holden the day after the Examination called the Apposition-Court. At the same Court also the yearly appointment of the Head-Master takes place, by the ceremony of informing him that his place is vacant, that he is no longer Master, and enquiring if he wish to be re-elected since the Company appears to have interpreted the Founder's statute on this subject as requiring an annual re-election; though it is probable

The present Head-Master of School is the Rev. John Sleath, D.D., whose salary is per annum, with a spacious residence attached to the edifice on the north; an allowance of for a gown; and a compensation of about for the house at Stepney which the Founder originally annexed to the office.[c]  The following is a list of the from the time of its establishment to the present.[d] , William Lilly. , John Ritwyse. , Richard Jones. , Thomas Freeman. , John Cooke. , William Malin. , John Harrison. , Richard Mulcaster. , Alexander Gill, , Alexander Gill, D.D. , John Langley. , Samuel Cromleholme. , Thomas Gale, D.D. , John Postlethwayt. , Philip Ascough. , Benjamin Morland. , Timothy Crumpe. , George Charles, D.D. , George Thicknesse. , Richard Roberts, D.D.[e] , John Sleath, D.D.

The present Sur-Master is the Rev. W. A. C. Durham, M. A. whose salary is per annum, with a similar allowance for a gown, a gratuity of and a house at the south end of the school. The present Under- Master, or Ancient Chaplain, is the Rev. J. P. Bean, M. A. whose salary is per annum, the same allowance for a gown, a gratuity of and a residence at the south end of the building. The present Assistant-Master is the Rev. J. Cooper, A. M., whose salary is per annum, with the allowance for a gown, and a compensation of yearly, as there is not any house attached to this office. Some of the Masters of School receive boarders, but this is of course a private arrangement.

Besides these salaries to the preceptors, there are several annual payments made out of the funds of the School to officers of the Mercers Company, and inferiors who are employed in the service of the establishment, As namely to the Clerk of the Company, ; the Accomptant, ; Beadles, each; the Surveyor-Accomptant, ; the Surveyor-Assistant ; the Porter-Boy, [f] 

The list of eminent persons who have received their education at School is both extensive and honourable, and amply verifies and supports the predictions of those who saw its foundation and the praises of later periods. "You have erected," says Erasmus in an epistle to Dean Colet, "a most beautiful and noble School; where, under the choicest and most approved masters, the youth of Britain may receive both the knowledge of Christ and of the best literature soon after their childhood."[g]  In a letter from Sir Thomas Moore to the Founder, who was his confessor, School is likened to the wooden horse of Ulysses, out of which the Grecians issued to surprise Troy: and in "like manner" adds the writer, "out of this your school, many have come, that have subverted and overthrown all ignorance and rudeness."[h]  The variety of talent evinced by the pupils of this establishment, and the advancement by which they have been distinguished, are also thus expressed in a sermon preached by Dr. Samuel Knight at their Anniversary meeting in , "at this present some of them are deservedly honoured

Thomas Nightingale, author of Latin poems on the death of Dean Colet and Lily, and celebrated for his classical learning and wit:[b]  Thomas Lupset, author of a variety of religious works, &c[c]  in Latin and English, Secretary to Dr. Pace, and Cardinal Pole in their embassies, and Prebendary of Salisbury: Sir Anthony Denny, Knt. a Baron of , and Privy-Councillor to Henry VIII.: Sir William Paget, Knt. Lord Paget, of Beaudesert, in the County of Stafford; Clerk of the Council, Privy Seal, and Parliament, under Henry VIII.; as also his Secretary and Ambassador to Charles V. and Francis I.; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Comptroller of the Household to Edward VI.; and Keeper of the Privy-Seal to Queen Mary; a PrivyCoun- cillor to successive sovereigns. Sir Edward North, Knt. Lord North, of Kirtling, in the County of Cambridge, Privy-Councillor to Henry VIII. and Queen Mary: John Leland, the Antiquary: Dr. William Whittaker, Professor of Divinity, and Master of College, Cambridge; a very eminent defender of the Protestant cause, and author of many excellent works in Divinity: William Camden, Claranceux King of Arms, Head-Master of School, and author of the English Greek Grammar, and the Britannia. William Burton, author of a Commentary on the Itinerary of Antoninus and many learned works; and Master of Kingston Free-School: Edward Lane, M. A. author of several works in Divinity; John Milton: Sir Peter Pett, Knt. F. R. S. Advocate General for Ireland to Charles II. and author of several miscellaneous works: Sir Charles Scarborough, Knt. a very learned mathematician and anatomist, principal Physician to Charles II., James II., and William III.; and for years lecturer at Surgeon's Hall, on the muscles of human bodies: Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Navy: Samuel Johnson, Chaplain to Lord William Russell, a zealous defender of Protestantism for which he underwent many sufferings: Benjamin Calamy, D.D. the uncle of the celebrated Dr. Edmund Calamy, Vicar of St. Lawrence Jewry, and eminent as a preacher both at the University and in the City:[d]  Dr. Richard Meggot, Dean of Windsor: Dr. Edward Reynolds, Archdeacon of Norwich: Thomas Smith, A.M. Librarian to the University of Cambridge: William Nicholls, D.D. author of many sermons and works in Divinity: Richard Blondel, an eminent surgeon, possessed of an admirable character: Sir Thomas Davis, Knt. Bookseller of London, Sheriff in , and Lord Mayor ; who "had so much knowledge in the European languages, as to be able to converse with the Foreign Ambassadors in their known different tongues:" Humphrey Gower, D.D., Margaret Professor of Divinity, and Master of College, Cambridge: Robert Nelson, Esq. author of the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England, &c.: Richard Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough: George Doddington, Esq. Treasurer of the Navy, of the Lords of the Admiralty, and M.P. for Bridgewater: Thomas Tooke, D.D. Master of the Grammar-School at Bishops-Stortford, Herts: Samuel Rosewell, M.A. an eminent dissenting preacher and author of several religious works: Roger Cotes, Plumian Professor of Astronomy, and Master of Trinity College, in the University of Cambridge; the esteemed associate of Sir Isaac Newton: Sir John Trevor, Knt. Master of the Rolls and Speaker of the : the Rev. John Strype, M.A. Vicar of Low Layton, author of Ecclesiastical Memorials, Annals of the Reformation, Lives of Archbishops Whitgift, Grindal, Cranmer, Parker, &c. &c. and Editor of a most excellent edition of Stow's Survey of London: Samuel Knight, D.D. Prebendary of Ely, author of the Lives of Dean Colet, Erasmus, &c.. Archibald Douglas, Earl of Forfar: Charles Montague, Duke of Manchester: John Churchill, duke of Marlborough: Sir Edward Northey, Knt. Attorney-General: George Hooper, D.D. Bishop of Bath and Wells: Samuel Bradford, D.D. Bishop of Rochester: John Leng, D.D. Bishop of Norwich: Matthias Mawson, D.D. Bishop of Ely: the Right Hon. Spencer Compton, Speaker of the : the Hon. Spencer Cowper, Chief-Justice of Chester: Charles Butler, Earl of Orrery: Sir Soulden Lawrence, Knt. of the Justices of the King's Bench: Lord Frederick Campbell: Dr. Garner, Dean of Exeter: John Fisher, D.D. Bishop of Salisbury: Rev. John Curtis, Head-Master of the Grammar-School of Ashby de la Zouch.

[a] A Series of Evidences respecting the Ancient Foundation for the Education of the St. Paul's Choristers, from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century. Compiled from MSS. in the British Museum, and other authentic documents. Lond. 1812, 4to. An unpublished work by Miss Maria Hackett. This first edition was a pamphlet of 28 pages, which was afterwards succeeded by an enlarged impression of the same matter, containing 122 pages in the whole, and also printed for private circulation only, entitled, Correspondence, Legal Proceedings, and Evidences, respecting the Ancient School attached to St. Paul's Cathedral, Lond. 1816, 4to. The correspondence consists of copies of the letters and answers which passed between the compiler of the work and all the principal officers of the Cathedral, between 1811 and October 1813. It is related in the first letter of that correspondence, addressed to the Bishop of London, Jan. 12th, 1812, that the following was the neglected state of the children belonging to the choir of St. Paul's, which had been for some time a subject of general animadversion; especially when viewed in contrast with their former condition.—In the earlier ages of the Cathedral, the choristers and other members of the choir formed part of the Dean's household; and even when the latter ceased to live together as a community, the children-choristers, or pueri eleemosynarii, still continued to enjoy the same advantage: since when they had been once received into the Church, their board, education, and all other contingencies, were provided for by the estates devoted to that purpose, which were then more than sufficient to defray all those expenses. Even until within a few years previous to the commencement of this correspondence, they were still maintained and educated from the funds of the Cathedral; but the original sum allowed for their board having become totally inadequate thereto, through the depreciation of money, in the year 1800 the Almoner of St. Paul's applied to the Chapter for an augmentation. Instead of complying with his request, the Chapter declined making any addition to the sum anciently assigned for the maintenance of the choristers, and the Almoner was obliged to dismiss them from his protection, though he divided between them their trifling salary; pp. 1, 2,.25, note a. It is believed that a sum under 40l. per annum, probably the nominal value of the ancient estates of the school, was divided between the parents of the choristers instead of being applied to the education of the children; and about the same sum, formerly an ample allowance to the Almoner for the board of ten boys, was paid as an equivalent for their maintenance; p. 7, note a. In consequence of this dismissal, many of the children of the choir reside at a considerable distance from the Church and Singing- Master, and much of the day is consumed in the streets, without any inquiry being made as to the employment of their time; since if they appear in their places at the hours of service, no thought is bestowed upon their conduct during the remainder of the day. To remunerate their singing-master for his instruction,—though as it may be also observed in some degree to benefit themselves by the practice afforded them,—they are frequently hired out to Oratorios at the Theatres, and to public concerts, in the evening, and exposed unprotected to whatever society they may meet with in such assemblies, and left to find their way home after the conclusion of the performance: all which is in direct disregard of the statute concerning them, which orders that some mature person should watch over them, even in going to and returning from school. Nor was their education less neglected, since excepting that they attended the singing-master for the lessons requisite to enable them to perform the choralservice, and that they were called upon a very few times in the year to repeat the Catechism, they were literally kept without instruction. The Almoner, however, a short time before the publication of this Correspondence, had "engaged a writing-master to attend them twice a week for about two hours; which was the utmost time allotted for their education throughout the day, exclusive of their casual lessons in music, which rarely occupied half so much: their master professing that his time between 9 in the morning and 5 in the evening was too valuable to be bestowed on the choristers;" p. 50.—The volume whence these particulars are extracted states of the chorister on whose behalf the first efforts were made for reviving the Ancient School of the Cathedral,—that he was scarcely seven years of age when he entered the choir; that his conduct there had been unexceptionable; that his attendance on it prevented his education elsewhere; that when he was upon the point of leaving the music-school at sixteen, he could neither play a bar, nor had he even been taught to read his notes; and that he had then an employment and an education to seek. p. 37. As to the classical learning of the choristers it is observed that the foundation bearing the name of their Ancient School refuses to admit them, under the plea that liberal provision had been made for the education of the Cathedral-boys, though the law by which they are excluded is not stated. p. 19. In consequence of this neglected state of the choristers, in 1813 a petition on their behalf was presented to the Master of the Rolls, under the Act of the 52nd year of George III., 1812, for providing a summary remedy in cases of abuses of trusts created for charitable purposes. The cause came to a hearing on April 28th, 1814, Sir Samuel Romilly. Mr., now Sir Lancelot, Shadwell, and Mr. Stephen, being counsel for the petitioners, and Mr. Leach and Mr. Bell appearing for the Dean and Chapter, Chancellor, and Almoner of St. Paul's. The pleadings were resumed on May 2nd, when Mr. Greenhill was heard on the part of the Precentor, and Mr. Harbord on that of the Chancellor; after whom Sir Samuel Romilly spoke at considerable length in reply. The Master of the Rolls reserved the case for further deliberation; but on August 5th he delivered his decision to the effect following.—That a very considerable proportion of the petition related to objects out of the jurisdiction of the Court; or with regard to which the Court could not exercise its jurisdiction in a summary mode of proceeding: that he concluded the Court had nothing to do with the observance or non-observance of the statutes of a Cathedral, or the performance of the duties of its ministers and officers: that the petition stated that certain funds are not applied to their intended purposes, and if the Court had jurisdiction to decide on the existence of a charitable trust, it would be proper ground of complaint; but as that became a question of property, it should be decided in the same solemn manner in which every other question of property is decided: and, in fine, that the existence of the trust was the point of controversy between the parties. "It had been attempted to be shewn," continued the Master of the Rolls, "that the estates of the Dean and Chapter, and of the Chancellor of St. Paul's, are liable to certain burthens and trusts to which, within living memory, they have never been subject. Documents are produced, which are ancient instruments, for the purpose of shewing that grants have been made to the Chancellor of lands, tythes, and other property for the purpose of supporting and maintaining a school for the education of the choristers, but it does not appear to me that these documents do at any time distinctly shew that to have been the purport of those grants. The officer,—namely, the Registrar of the Dean and Chapter,—does not admit of any such trust. The Act of Parliament says not that the Court is summarily to decide whether the estates be subject to such a charitable trust; but that in every case of a breach, or supposed breach, of any trust created for charitable purposes, it should be lawful for the Court to proceed upon petition. The only case in which it is stated that there is any devise or grant to the Almoner for a charitable purpose, is that of the will of Richard De Newport, who gave certain houses to the Almoner for the maintenance of one or two choristers, for a period not exceeding two years after their voices were broken. The Almoner takes no notice of this in his affidavit, and does not state whether the houses exist; but Mr. Hodgson,—the Registrar,—in one of his affidavits, states he is informed, and believes, that the Almoner of the Cathedral, for the time being, has been in the habit of maintaining a chorister or two after they have ceased to sing in the Cathedral, in consequence of the breaking of their voices, until they have been otherwise provided for. This, therefore, should seem to be a subsisting and undisputed charity; and it appears that there must be an enquiry what the trust consists of, what are the rents and profits, and how they are applied."—Correspondence, &c. on the Ancient School of St. Paul's, pp. 63-66.

[b] Article xxii. "Forasmuch as the Church of God, like a holy mother, looking sometimes to the support of the body, and sometimes that benefit should be increased to the souls of the poor,—is bound to provide that the poor should not have all opportunities of learning and profiting taken away, though they cannot be aided by the power of their own relations;—in every Cathedral-Church a master ought to teach poor scholars, he being a Clerk of the same Church, to whom some adequate benefice should be assigned. The like also should be restored in other Churches and Monasteries, if in times past any such have belonged to them and have been taken away: which Master by his teaching should succour the poor, and by his learning spread open the way to instruction. And for liberty of teaching no price whatsoever should be demanded or obtained, under any custom from any of those who desire to teach; nor are any whomsoever to be prevented from being taught who greatly desire it, and are fitting for it. And he who shall presume to act against this ordinance shall be displaced from his ecclesiastical benefice. It is meet also to be observed, that he who is of a covetous soul shall not have the fruit of his labour in the Church of God, whilst he sells the ecclesiastical licence of teaching to the hindrance of the fair profit of others." —Chronicon Gercasii Dorobernensis. A.D. 1179, April 5th, Henry II.—Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores X., by Roger Twysden, Lond. 1652, fol. col. 1454.

[a] Harleian MSS. No. 6956. Excerpta ex Registr. Londin. fol. 113.—History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, by Sir William Dugdale, Edit. by Sir H. Ellis, Lond. 1818 fol. p. 6.

[b] Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's, p. 6.—The Life of Dr. John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., and Founder of St. Paul's School; by Samuel Knight, D.D. Lond. 1724, 8vo. p. 116.—The power of the Chancellor of the Cathedral mentioned above, was perhaps the origin of that inserted in the Canons Ecclesiastical established in 1603, the 1st year of James I., cap. lxxvii., which ordains that none shall be allowed to teach school, without license under the hand and seal of the Bishop or Ordinary; the Chancellor being probably considered as Ordinary of St. Paul's for London.—The licensing of Schoolmasters by the Ordinary was farther required by the following Statutes.—23rd Elizabeth, 1581, cap. 1, sect. vi.; Act of Uniformity, 13th and 14th Charles 11., 1662, cap. 4, sect. xi.; 12th Anne, 1713, Stat. 2, cap. 7, which imposed the penalty of three months' imprisonment upon persons keeping a school without license from the Bishop; this was repealed by the Act of 5th George I., 1718, cap. 4.—About the thirteenth century the title of Magister Scholarum of St. Paul's became lost in that of Cancellarius, or Chancellor, when both the duties and emoluments of the office were extended; and an ordinance relating to it directs that "none shall be Chancellor excepting a Master in Theology, or a Bachelor within one year of his commencement; who during his whole time shall govern the School by himself and the other Master."—Correspondence, &c. on the Ancient School of St. Paul's, p. iv. note 1.

[c] Fitz-Stephen's Description of the City of London; with a Translation, Commentary, and Dissertation on the Author, by the Rev. Samuel Pegge. Lond. 1772, 4to. p. 30, note 33, p. 62.

[d] Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. iii. Savoy (in London) 1673, fol. No. xxvii. p. 339. These regulations, taken from the same ancient MS., are also printed in Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, Appendix, No. xxxvii. pp. 345, 347, 348, commencing "De Dignitate Episcopi."

[e] Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's, Append. p. 347.—Knight's Life of Colet, p. 116, in which the succeeding passage, given above, was written by Dr. White Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough.—"And forasmuch as the said children are obliged to go abroad, they ought, both when they go and when they return from school, to be under the conduct of some mature person assigned to this duty by the Almoner, that in the levity of youth they do not wander away from virtue."—Registrum Eleemosynariæ D. Pauli Lond. circa 1200. Harleian MSS. No. 7041, p. 22.

[f] Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's, Append. p. 347.—The Cardinals of the Choir were two of the Minor Canons elected to their office by the Dean and Chapter. They were to teach the Choristers their Catechism weekly, or at least monthly. Ibid. p. 345.

[g] John Reston, D.D. Residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral, founded one fellowship and seven scholarships in Jesus College, Cambridge; for which the College granted to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's the right of nominating candidates to two of those scholarships, taken from St. Paul's School, or in defect thereof from any other. The Life of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, by Ralph Churton, Oxf. 1809, 8vo. p. 227, from the Indenture, 8th Febr. 17th Eliz. 1574-75, and the Register called Nowell, i. fol. 431.

[h] The following are some of the endowments which appear on record as having belonged to the Ancient School of St. Paul's.—Richard De Belmeis, Bishop of London, gave to Henry, a Canon of the Cathedral who succeeded Hugo as Master, the tythes of Ealing and Madeley, and an estate on the Thames banks at Fulham, in honour and support of the Mastership; Richard Fitz-Nigel, Prelate of the same See in the reign of Richard I., endowed the establishment with all the tythes arising in his demesnes of Fulham and Orsett; and Radulphus de Seleham gave lands in Lodesword, in oblations from the Church of St. Osyth to the Magister Scholarum of the Church of St. Paul. After the name of that office became lost in the title of Chancellor of the Cathedral, Henry de Cornhull, who held that dignity A.D. 1217, left his house on the south side of St. Paul's Churchyard to his successors for ever, on payment of one mark, 13s. 4d., on the anniversary of his death. This gift is said now to comprise thirteen houses in the Churchyard, King's Head Court, and Carter Lane. In 1308 Ralph De Baldock, Bishop of London, confirmed to the Chancellor of the Church the tythes of Ealing, on condition that he should read a lecture in Divinity, either in person or by deputy, on penalty of forfeiting the whole profits of the Rectory; and that he should pay 10l. per annum to the Vicar of Ealing; which, however, the Rev. Daniel Lysons observes is not received at the present time. Environs of London, vol. ii. Lond. 1705, 4to. p. 231.—Of the above endowments the Chancellor of St. Paul's still holds a valuable estate at Hammersmith on the banks of the Thames; and a modus has long been paid by the Rectors of Fulham and Orsett in lieu of the tythes, the former aounting to 4l. 15s., and the latter to 6l. per annum.—Correspondence, &c. on the Ancient School of St. Paul's, p. iv. and note.—Original authorities, Harleian MSS. No. 6956, p. 113. History of the Diocese of London, by Richard Newcourt, Lond. 1708, fol. vol. i. p. 109, 607. vol. ii. p. 454. The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, by Philip Morant, Lond. 1768, fol. vol. i. p. 225. Lysons' Environs of London, vol. ii. p. 376.

[a] Stat. 31st Henry VIII., 1539, Cap. ix.

[b] Stat. 1st Edward VI., 1547, Cap. xiv. Sect. 11.

[c] "A Collection of Articles, Injunctions, Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, Ecclesiastical, with other Records of the Church of England," by Anthony Sparrow, Bishop of Norwich, Lond. 1675, 4to. p. 80.—The Act for Restitution of the First Fruits to the Crown, 1st Elizabeth, 1558, cap. iv. Sect. xl. also provides that nothing contained in it shall extend to the revenues of any schools. It appears that at this time the ancient School of St. Paul's was very probably kept in the Cathedral itself; since, in the orders for Cathedral Churches it is directed that there shall not be any school kept within the church besides the Queen's School, and that of the Choristers.

[d] "The History of the Life and Acts of the Most Rev. Father in God, Edmund Grindal, Bishop of London, and Archbishop of York and Canterbury, in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth;" by the Rev. J. Strype. Lond. 1710. fol. p. 76.—This Minor-Canon was one Sebastian Westcote, whom Bishop Grindal excommunicated for heresy in 1563; he succeeded John Good, Junior-Cardinal, as Master of the Boys.

[e] Churton's "Life of Nowell," p. 190.

[f] "An impartial Collection of Great Affairs of State, from the beginning of the Scotch Rebellion in 1639, to the Murther of King Charles I." By John Nalson, LL D. Lond. 1683. fol. vol. ii. p. 240.

[g] Anno 1646. Cap. 64. 9th October.—"Collection of Acts and Ordinances of General Use made in the Parliament, from Nov. 3rd, 1646, to 1657." By Henry Scobell. Lond, 1658. fol. p. 101.—Similar provisions are also inserted in the Parliament's Ordinances for abolishing Deans and Chapers, &c. Anno 1649, cap. 24. 30th April. Ibid. p. 18.

[h] Stat. 22nd Charles II. 1670, cap. vi. An Act for advancing the sale of fee-farm and other rents. Sect. xiv.

[i] Stat. 22nd 23rd Charles II. 1670, cap. iii. An Act for granting a Subsidy, &c. Sect. lxviii. "Codix Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani; or the Statutes, Constitutions, Canons, Rubricks, and Articles of the Church of England;" by Edmund Gibson, D.D. Bishop of London. Lond. 1761. fol. vol. i. p. 172. Canon xlii.

[j] Knight's "Life of Dean Colet," pp. 98-100.—It appears from a petition to the Commons in Parliament in the 25th year of Henry VI., 1447, that this deficiency of Schools in London had been for a considerable time a subject of complaint, which probably arose from that privilege granted to the Magister Scholarum of St. Paul's already mentioned. The commencement of the memorial desires the assembled Commons "to considre the grete nombre of Gramer Scoles that sometime were in divers partes of this realme, besyde tho that were in London, and howe fewe ben in thise dayes; and the grete hurt that is caused of this—not oonly in the Spirituel partie of the Churche, where often tymes it apperith too openly in som persones with grete shame, but also in the Temporell parties, to whom it is full expedient to component congruite, for many causes, as to your wisedoms apperith. And for as muche as to the Citie of London the commune concours of this lond, wherein is grete multitude of younge peple, not oonly borne and brought forthe in the same Citie, but also of many other parties of this lond, some for lacke of Scole-maistres in their oune contree, for to be enfourmed of Gramer there, and some for grete almesse of lordes, merchaunts, and other, the which is in London more plenteously done than in many other places in this reaume, to such pouere creatures as never should have been brought to so grete vertu and connying as thei have, ne hadde it ben by the meane of the almes abovesaid:—Wherefore it were expedient that in London were a sufficeant nombre of Scoles, and good enfourmers in Gramer; and not for the singular avail of ii or iii persones grevously to hurt the multitude of yong people of all this lond: For where there is grete nombre of lerners and few techers, and all the lerners be compelled to go to the same few techers and to noon other, the maistres wexen riche in money and the lerners pouere in connyng, as experience openly shewith against all vertu and ordre of well publick."—The petition goes on to request that the Commons would intercede with the King for the establishment of Grammar-Schools in the Parishes of Allhallows the Greater, St. Andrew's in Holborn Suburbs, St. Peter's upon Cornhill, and St. Mary Colechurch, in London; under Master William Lycchefield, Master Gilbert, and Master John Cote, the Parsons of those Churches, and John Neell, Master of the Hospital of St. Thomas of Acres, and their successors; which petition was complied with and the seminaries instituted.—"Rotuli Parliamentorum ut et Petitiones of Placita in Parliamento." fol. vol. v. p. 137. No. 1.

[a] "The Church History of Britain," by Thomas Fuller, Lond. 1655. fol. book v. Century xvi. 167, paragr. 15, 16.

[b] Knight's "Life of Dean Colet," p. 118.

[c] 24th Henry VII. "In this year, 1508, John Colet erected his costly and magnificent School in that part of the churchyard of the Cathedral which looks towards the east. In the same year died Henry the seventh of his name."—"Alexandri Nevylli Norvicus," Lond. 1575, 4to. in a Chronology of Mayors and Sheriffs of Norwich at the close of the work, signat. Eee.

[d] Knight's "Life of Dean Colet," pp. 102-108.—Thomas Cooper's "Epitome of Chronicles," Lond. 1569. 4to. part iii. p. 272 b, marked 271. A.D. 1510; "Chronicon," by George Lily, son of William Lily, the first Master of St. Paul's School, Francof. 1565. 4to. p. 68 a, A.D. 1509; Richard Grafton's "Chronicle at Large," Lond. 1569. fol. p. 954, A.D. 1509. "Polydori Vergilii Vrbinatis Anglicæ Historiæ," written in 1521, Basil, 1570, fol. book xxvi. p. 618, at the end of the reign of Henry VII.; "Chronicles of England," by Raphael Holinshed, Lond. 1586. fol. vol. ii. p. 806. A.D. 1510; Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, "De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ," Hanov. 1605, fol. pp. 306, 307, in the Life of William Warham, A.D. 1510; Anthony à Wood's "Athenæ Oxoniensis," Edit. Bliss, Lond. 1813, 4to. vol. i. col. 23, note 8, A.D. 1512; the prologue to the Autograph Statutes of the Founder is dated June 18th, 1518; and his Latin epistle to Lily, recommending his Accidence, August 1st, 1509. The account of this foundation given by Erasmus, states that it did not take place until after the decease of Sir Henry, the father of Dean Colet, whose ancient epitaph in Stepney Church, preserved by Weever in his "Ancient Funerall Monuments," Lond. 1631. fol. p. 540, states that he died in 1510. This would almost tend completely to invalidate the inscription on the schoolhouse, were it not that Dr. William Nicholson, Bishop of Carlisle, has observed in his "English Historical Library," Lond. 1736, fol. Part I. chap. 11, p. 15,—that Weever "has most scandalously mistaken the numeral letters and figures in most of the inscriptions he transcribed, which makes it hazardous for an antiquary to rely upon his authority;" a remarkable instance of the truth of this assertion will be found in the account of the Monument of Sir Andrew Judde, contained in this work, p. 1, note h.

[e] The following is the address above referred to, which will be found in the original Latin in "Dean Colet's Institution of a Christian Man, for the use of his School, prefixed to the Rudiments of the Latin Tongue." Knight's "Life of Colet," Append. No. xi. p. 446, entitled, "A little Prayer to the Child Jesus presiding in the School.—O my most sweet Lord Jesus, who, whilst as yet a child in the twelfth year of thine age, didst so discourse with the doctors in the Temple at Jerusalem as that they all marvelled with amazement at thy super-excellent wisdom; I beseech thee that in this thy School, by the tutors and patrons whereof I am daily taught in letters and instruction,—I may be enabled chiefly to know thee, O Jesus, who art thyself the only true wisdom; and afterwards to have knowledge both to worship and to imitate thee: and also in this brief life so to walk in the way of thy doctrine, following in thy footsteps, that as thou hast attained unto glory, I also, in departing out of this life, may through thy grace happily arrive at some part thereof. Amen."—Beside this prayer, in conformity with the first wish of the Founder, Erasmus composed a short poem in Iambic verse, "to signify the choice and preference of the Divine Protector and Governor of the School;" which appears to have been hung up in the Proscholion, together with a Sapphic ode "imploring the Divine aid and success to this new foundation, and expressing the design of it to be for the institution of boys in the Greek and Latin tongues, and the principles of religion." Copier of these verses are given in Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 140-143, notes. Erasmus likewise composed an Oration in Latin, also connected with the same subject, entitled "Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Concio de Pvero Jesv, olim pronvnciata à Pvero in Scholâ Johannis Coleti Londini Institvtâ; in qvâ præsidebat Imago Pveri Jesu docentis specie;" which will be found printed in his Works, Vol. v. col. 559-560; and in Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 338-356. An elegant separate edition of it was also printed by Messrs. J. and J. B. Nichols and S. Bentley, Lond. 1816, 8vo. with a fac-simile of the author's handwriting; of which only 100 copies were issued for sale.

[f] Matth. xvii. 5. Erasmus appears to have had a great partiality for the effigies of persons, and even of animals, represented as speaking in different languages, chiefly from the Scriptures; of which he gives a variety of examples in his very curious Colloquy called "Convivium Religiosum," in the description of the suburban garden of Eusebius.

[g] Lily refers to this arrangement in the Latin Poem "De Moribus," which he composed for the children of St. Paul's School, verse 13. Ac magis ut quisque est doctrinæ munere clarus, Sis magis is sede locandus erit. And as with learning each shall more be graced, So in a loftier seat shall each be placed.

[a] The impure celibacy of the monastic orders having brought them into very general disrepute, long before the time of Erasmus, he takes occasion to commend the wisdom and honesty of Dean Colet's adoption of married men for the guardians of this School; in his remarks on seminaries, &c., contained in the learned and elaborate "Dialogue de Rectâ Latini Græcique sermonis Pronunciatione," between Ursus and Leo.—"Ursus. In like manner John Colet, a man eternally worthy of memory, in that school for children which he annexed to the Church of St. Paul, considered nothing with more labour than to whom should be committed the completion of this affair. The Bishops held the matter unworthy of their solicitude. As for Scholars themselves receiving the authority, they were rather inclined to arbitrary government than to take care of the school: and he had himself observed even the duty of the Schoolmaster was best discharged where he was not severe. In the Colleges of Secular Canons the greater part of them was almost always of the worst sort; and in Magistrates either judgment was wanting, or else they indulged in private favour. Leo. What counsellors then did he at length discover? Ursus. He placed married persons, freemen of the City, over his School; and committed the government to some certain lay citizens, whose honesty he himself had seen proved, or who derived it from their fathers. Leo. And in this care then, was there full security? Ursus. By no means: but he said that he had seen less danger in such a hody, than in any other controllers of human affairs." Desiderii Erasmi Opera, Edit. Cleric. Lugd. Batav. 1703, fol. vol. i. col. 918. F.

[b] "Erasmus Rotterodamus Jodoco Jone, Erphordiensis: in the memoir of Dean Colet, written from Anderlecht, June 13th, 1519.—Erasmi Opera, vol. iii. part i. col. 457 B. Epist. ccccxxxv.

[c] It is supposed that in fixing the number of scholars to be taught at this School to 153, Dean Colet had in his mind an allusion to the number of great fishes taken by St. Peter in the miraculous draught, when Christ commanded him to cast his net upon the right side of the ship in the sea of Tiberias after the resurrection. John xxi. ii.—Strype's Stow's "Survey of London," Edit. 1720, fol. Vol. I. book i. chap. xxv. p. 164.—Knights "Life of Colet," p. 361.—Anthony à Wood unaccountably states the number of scholars assigned to St. Paul's School to be 353. which is rectified by Dr. Bliss from the information of Dr. Roberts, the Head Master. "Athenæ Oxoniensis," 4to. vol. i. col. 24, Note 8.

[d] The ancient catholic custom of dedicating churches, religious houses, altars, &c., in honour of some particular event or portion of the lives of holy personages, appropriate to the situation or intention of the founder,—is the principle upon which Dean Colet placed his School under the protection of Jesus Christ in his Infancy, as being at once the most illustrious, natural, beautiful, and compassionate, patron and example of the children there to be educated. The period of his life referred to, is considered to be that when at twelve years of age he sat in the midst of the Doctors in the Temple at Jerusalem, "both hearing them and asking them questions;" Luke ii. 46. The same patron is also referred to in those Latin verses, composed by Lilly, engraven on Colet's tomb in Old St. Paul's; "Quique Scholam struxit celebrem cognomine Jesu." So that, says Strype, "the true name of this School is Jesus' School, rather than Paul's School; but the saint hath robbed his master of his title." From the latter name having been thus erroneously attributed to the present foundation, and from its proximity to the Cathedral, the ancient and modern schools have been generally confounded and considered as the same; but the property belonging to St. Paul's School, properly so called, has never been conveyed to Dean Colet's; and the boys belonging to the choir are indirectly but effectually excluded from the latter, on the ground that their education was sufficiently provided for in the former, which, however, is now no longer in existence.

[e] Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 356, Appendix, No. V.—Strype's Stow's "Survey of London," Vol. 1. book i. chap. xxv. p. 165, the copy in which is stated to be "exchart. Societat. Merceror. London."

[f] Knight's "Life of Colet," Appendix No. V. pp. 356-369.—"Third Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on the Education of the Lower Orders in the Metropolis," dated June 19th, 1816, pp. 171-176.—"A Concise Description of the Endowed Grammar Schools of England and Wales," by Nicholas Carlisle, London 1818, 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 71. 81.

[g] The sickness referred to in these Statutes, appears to have been principally the frequent returns of the Plague to which London was subject in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. "Yf both Maisters be sick at onys," says another of these rules, "then let the Scole cease for that while. Yf there be suche sicknesse in the Citie contagious, that the Scole cannot continue, yet neverthelesse both Maisters shall have theire wagis, being always readie for to teache."

[a] "At his masse," adds this part of the Statutes, "when the bell in the scole shall knyll to sacrynge, then all the children in the scole, knelynge in their seats, shall with lift upp handes pray in the time of sacringe. After the sacringe, when the bell knylleth agayne, they shall sitt downe agayne to theire bokes lernynge."

[b] The real value of the ancient salaries and liveries ordered by the above Statutes, will perhaps be more evidently perceived by the following illustrations.—In A.D. 1378, Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, decreed that every unfixed mass-priest should content himself with 7 marks per annum, all in money, or 3 marks per annum with diet; and he that takes a cure to content himself with 8 marks, or with 4 marks and his diet; on pain of excommunication. "Chronicon Preciosum," by Dr. William Fleetwood, Bishop of St. Asaph, Lond. 1745, 8vo. p. 111. In 1439 Archbishop Chichely ordered in convocation that rectors or appropriators should augment their vicarages to 8l. per annum, if the benefice were worth so much, to support the burthen incident to such livings. Ibid. p. 112. Before the pestilence of 1348 had swept away so many priests that a chaplain could hardly be gotten to serve a church under ten marks, or pounds,—a clergyman might be had for five, or four marks, nay even at two, together with their diet: after that time they would hardly accept of a vicarage of 20 marks or even 20l. per annum. Ibid. p. 109. About the middle of the fifteenth century the statutes of a College then founded allow 1s. 4d. for the weekly diet of each of the scholars, to be raised to 1s. 5d. or 1s. 6d. in times of scarcity; and when corn should be and continue for twenty days at 2s. per quarter, then to be 1s. 8d. but not to rise any higher. Ibid. p. 84. In 1514 the diet of labourers is estimated at 2d. per day. Ibid. p. 132. In 1440 the allowance to the King's Serjeant and Attorney for their robes was 26s. 11d., and between the years 1440 and 1460 the cloth for a Doctor's gown cost 3s. 7 1/2d. per yard. Ibid. pp. 128-137. That the amount ordered in the above Statutes for livery-gowns was the largest ordinary sum paid for such dresses, is shewn by several curious entries in the "Privy-Purse Expenses of Henry VIII., from Nov. 1529 to Jan. 1532." Edited by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, with Introductory Remarks and Illustrations, Lond. 1827. 8vo.—1530. June 6th. Paid xxijs. for a coat. p. 49.—1531. March 13th. "Item. the same daye paied Sir John Hurte for a gowne, xxvjs. viijd. Itm. the same daye paied to pynner for his liveraye, xxijs. vjd." p. 115.—1532. April 18th. A livery coat, xxijs. vijd. p. 209. Dec. Itm. the xxij daye paied to the Frenche Preste, the fesaunt-breder, for to bye him a gowne, and other things, xls." p. 280.—In the same authority also appears an entry of a royal gift immediately connected with this establishment. 1531. Jan. "Itm. the xxj daye paied to Rightwise, Scole Maister of Poules, by the King's commaundment, xiiili. ixs." p. 106.

[c] The religious service composed for this establishment may be seen printed at length in "Preces, Catechismvs, et Hymni, Græce et Latine, in vsvm antiqvæ et celebris Scholæ iv xta S. Pavli Templvm, apvd Londinates. Fvndatore venerabili admodvm viro Johanne Coleto, S. T. P. necnon S. P. Decano. Londini ex Officina Johannis Nichols et Sociorvm." 1814. 8vo. It consists of the following.—Morning Prayers, when the children meet for study;—the Lord's Prayer; a prayer for the progress of the children in their studies; an act of thanks for the Founder of the School; the blessing.—Prayers before Noon, when the morning studies cease:—The Lord's Prayer; a prayer for the divine blessing in the interval; the blessing.—Afternoon Prayers, when the children return to study from dinner:—the Lord's Prayer; a prayer to Christ for the renewing of the soul.—Evening Prayers, when the afternoon studies cease:—the Lord's Prayer; a prayer for a blessing on the past day; the blessing.—When the boys go out to play, or upon a holiday;—the Lord's Prayer: a prayer for the divine protection in their sports; the blessing. The occasional prayers in the volume are, for the King, for the Corporation of the City, for the Governors of the School, and for relations, teachers, and friends. The prayer for a blessing on the children's studies commencing "Domine Pater, Cœli et Terræ Effector," is still prefixed in Latin and English to Ward's edition of Colet's English Introduction to the St. Paul's School Latin Grammar.—The morning prayers at St. Paul's School appear to be alluded to in Lily's "Carmen de Moribus," verses 3, 4. Mane citus lectum fuge, mollem discute somnum, Templa petas supplex, et venerare Deum. At morn soon rise, yield to soft sleep no more, Then humbly in the Church thy God adore. Knight observes with great truth of the prayers for the parents of the scholars, and for aptness and docility in learning, that "both forms have nothing but plain christian piety, savouring not the least of popery or the common superstition." Of Colet's Catechism, however, Strype remarks that "if the superstitious parts of it had been laid aside, and the rest, which is very pious, retained for the use of the School, it would have been very well done, and the founder's will more complied with."

[d] It is observed in the account of this School contained in the "Third report of the Commissioners for enquiring concerning Public Charities," dated 15th June, 1820, p. 237, that from the circumstance of the children's friends being charged with the expense of wax candles and their books, it would appear that the establishment was not intended to be entirely a free-school, but that the children of rich and poor persons should both be received. It appears farther from the following entries in the "Privy Purse Expences of Henry VIII.," that rather large sums for the period were paid for the maintenance of some of the private scholars there.—1532. Jan. 8th. "Itm. the same daye paied to the Scole- Maister of Powle's for the charges of George Frauncs the King's scolar, iijli. xs." p. 186 — April 9th. "Itm. the same daye paied to the Scole-Maister of Powle's for the bourde of George Frauncs, the King's scolar, and other charges vli. iijs." p. 205.—July 18th. "Item the same daye paied to the Scole-Maister of Poule's for the exhibucion of George Frauncs, vijli. vs." p. 231.—Sept. 30th. "Itm. paied to the Scole-Maister of Poule's the bourde, scole-hire, &c. for Nicholas Frauncs, vijli. vs." p. 259.—Dec. 21st. "Itm. the same daye paied to the Scole-maister of Poule's for the exhibucion of Nicholas Frauncs, viili." p. 280.

[e] The "cockfighting and riding about of victory," as anciently practised by the youth of England, prohibited by the above regulations to the childre of St. Paul's School, are probably illustrated by the lowest group on Plate xxxv. of Joseph Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," Lond. 1801, 4to, p. 293. It represents a boy sitting across a long pole carried on the shoulders of two of his companions, holding a cock with both hands; supposed to be either the bird which he has won by throwing at it, or that belonging to him which has escaped unhurt from the conflict. A third boy follows holding a rude flag, said to be decorated with the figure of a staff used for throwing at cocks. The date of this illumination is stated to be A. D. 1433. Shrove Tuesday was the principal time when school boys claimed the diversion of cock-fighting; and on the morning of that day those of London were accustomed to bring game-cocks to their masters, and were permitted to amuse themselves till dinner time by seeing them fight in the school-room. Fitz-Stephen, "Descriptio Nobilissimæ Civitas Lundoniæ, pp. 45, 74. The abolition of this practice was worthy of the good sense and humanity of Colet. The Public disputations at the feast of St. Bartholomew, Aug. 24th, were doubtless the remains of a similar custom mentioned by Fitz-Stephen in the reign of Henry II. "On festivals," says that author, "at those churches where the feast of the patron-saint is solemnized, the masters convene their scholars. The youth on those occasions dispute; some in the demonstrative way, and some logically. These produce their enthymemes, and those the more perfect syllogisms. Some the better to shew their parts, are exercised in disputation, contending with one another; whilst others are put upon establishing some truth by way of illustration. Some sophists endeavoured to apply a vast number and flow of words, others to impose upon you with false conclusions. As to the orators, some with their rhetorical harangues employ all the powers of persuasion, taking care to observe the principles of art, and to omit nothing apposite to the subject. The boys of different schools wrangle with each other in verse, contending about the principles of grammar, or the rules of the perfect tenses and supines. Others there are who in epigrams or other compositions in numbers, use all that low ribaldry we read of in the ancients; attacking their schoolmasters, but without mentioning names, with the old fescennine licentious verses, and discharging their scoffs and sarcasms against them, touching the foibies of their school-fellows with a true Socratic wit, or biting them more keenly with a Leonine tooth. The audience fully disposed to laugh—with curling nose ingeminate the peals. Pers. iii. 87." Descriptio Nobiliss. Civitat. Lundoniæ, pp. 31, 63. Of these meetings and disputations, Stow observes in 1598, that the same had been long since discontinued, though the arguing of schoolboys about the principles of grammar, was retained till even his time. "For I myself in my youth," adds he, probably referring to about the year 1535, "have yearly seen, on the Eve of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, the scholars of divers grammar-schools repair unto the churchyard of St. Bartholomew, the Priory in Smithfield, where, upon a bank boarded about under a tree, some one scholar hath stepped up and there hath opposed and answered till he were by some better scholar overcome and put down: and then the overcomer taking the place did like as the hrst; and in the end the best opposers and answerers had rewards, which 1 observed not. But it made good schoolmasters, and also good scholars, diligently against such times to prepare themselves for the obtaining of this garland." It appears that at this period the above part of the statutes of St. Paul's school, prohibiting the scholars disputing at St. Bartholomew's was disregarded; since Stow mentions it as one of the free-schools attending those exercises; unless it may be supposed that he refers to the ancient St. Paul's School attached to the Cathedral. The best scholars, he adds, were those of St. Anthony's Hospital in Threadneedle Street, and they were rewarded as such by Sir Martin Bowes with silver bows and arrows, when he attempted to revive the Bartholomew disputations in the reign of Edward VI. Between the boys of these schools, there existed in consequence a curious sort of rivalry which frequently led to less ceremonious but more characteristic discussions than those above described. "The scholars of Paul's," says Stow, "meeting with them of St. Anthony's, would call 'them St. Anthony's Pigs,' and they again would call the others 'Pigeons of Paul's;' because many pigeons were bred in Paul's Church, and St. Anthony was always figured with a pig following him: and, mindful of the former usage, they did for a long season disorderly in the open street provoke one another with 'Salve;' 'Salve, tu quoque.' 'Placet tibi mecum disputare?' 'Placet.' And so proceeding from this to questions in grammar, they usually fell from words to blows with their satchels full of books; many times in so great heaps that they troubled the streets and passengers: so that finally they were restrained with the decay of St. Anthony's School." Strype's Stow's "Survey of London," Vol. I. book i. chap. xxii. pp. 123, 124.

[f] In all the collegiate churches of both France and England, from Dec. 6th, the feast of St. Nicholas, to the 28th, Holy Innocents' day, one of the children of the choir possessed of a good voice for singing, and a comely figure, was anciently elected to receive the dress, state, and title of a bishop; wearing a mitre and crosier, and exercising canonical authority over his companions, who were dressed as priests: whence he was called Episcopus Puerorum, Bishop of the Boys or the Boy Bishop. They took possession of the church and performed all ceremonies and offices, which might be performed by a Bishop and his Prebendaries, sometimes even including the mass itself: the statutes of Eton College, given A. D. 1441, order that the Episcopus Puerorum shall perform divine service on St. Nicholas day, though by no means on that of the Holy Innocents; whilst the statutes of Winchester College, given A. D. 1380, state that the "pueri," namely the Bishop and other boys, are permitted on the latter festival to perform all sacred offices in the chapel, according to the use of the Church of Sarum. This remarkable ceremony was particularly practised in Salisbury Cathedral, and in the statutes belonging to it there is a chapter "De Episcopo Choristorum;" as well as a long and minute account of it in the Processionale of the same church.—One of the Boy-Bishops of that Cathedral is supposed to have died during his time of office, and to have been buried in his pontifical robes, as appears by the monumental effigy of a youth preserved there, dressed in the habit of a bishop. It is not known at what period this ceremony was first practised, but it was prohibited by proclamation July 22nd, 1543, the 33rd year of Henry VIII. Some attempts were made by Mary to revive it, since on Nov. 13th, 1554, Bonner, Bishop of London, commanded the clergy of his diocese to have a St. Nicholas, or a Boy Bishop, carried in procession; as in England it was the custom for the juvenile prelate and his company to walk to different parts of their cities, especially in London, or at least to visit the religious houses, being liberally entertained and bestowing his blessing wherever he came. On the Eve of St. Nicholas, Dec. 5th, Bonner issued another ordinance directing that St. Nicholas should not be carried about; because Cardinal Pole had summoned a convocation of the Bishops and Clergy to meet at Lambeth on the following day. The festival, however, was observed in London by the parishes of St. Andrew, Holborn, and St. Nicholas Olave, in Bread Street. It was held again in 1555, 1556, and 1557; but after the accession of Elizabeth it appears to have been wholly disused.—"The history of English Poetry," by Thomas Warton, London. 1824, 8vo. vols. ii. p. 82. iii. pp. 215- 217. iv. pp. 127, 146-148.—"Historical Memorials" of Ecclesiastical and Civil Events in England under Mary I. by the Rev. John Strype, Lond. 1721, fol. vol. iii. pp. 202, 205, 310, 387. There are some curious notices extant concerning the Boy Bishop connected with St. Paul's Cathedral. In the inventory of the vestments, &c. belonging to it appear—"Item, one white mitre embroidered with little flowers, the gift of John Belemaynes for the performance of the Bishop of the little boys.—Item, a staff, the head and pomel of which are of gilded copper, set about with many and divers images: assigned to the use of the Bishop of the children." Dugdale's "Hist. of St. Paul's," pp. 315, 316. In the old statutes of the Cathedral there appear many orders concerning this ceremony, one of which is that the Canon called Stagiarius shall find the Boy Bishop his robes and a fair horse. There is also a book bearing the following title, "The Song of the Chyld-Bysshop, as it was songe before the Queenes Maiestie in her priuie chamber at her manour of Saynt James in the ffeeldesh on Saynt Nicholas day and Innocents day this yeare, now present by the Chyld Bysshope of Poule's Churche with his company. Londini, in ædibus, Johannis Cawood, Typograph, Reginæ 1555." 4to. black-letter. "It is surprising," says Warton, "that Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, a friend to the purity of religion, who had the good sense and resolution to censure the superstitions and fopperies of popery in his public sermons,—should countenance the idle farce of the Boy Bishop in the statutes of his school at St. Paul's; which he founded with a view of establishing the education of youth on a more rational and liberal plan than had yet been known. It cannot be doubted however, that in ordering the observance of this ceremony by his scholars, he was guided by the same principle which induced him to place the school under the patronage of the Child Jesus: the exhibiting to them an example with which youth and schoolboys might peculiarly sympathise. St. Nicholas, whom the Boy Bishop was designed to celebrate, was the patron of children and of scholars, and was considered at the time to be an eminent instance of early piety; since his legends relate that even in his cradle he observed the fasts of the Church, by sucking only once on Wednesdays and Fridays. From a layman he rose to be Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, and died in A.D. 343: and says Knight, "I shall only remark that there might this at least be said in favour of the old customs that it gave a spirit to the children; and the hopes that they might some time or other attain to the real mitre, made them mind their books."

[a] To walk two by two with the cross borne in front, was the ordinary form of catholic and monastic processions on Sundays, which were established by Agapetus, in A.D. 537, in memory of Christ sending his disciples "two and two before his face, into every city and place whither he himself would come." Mark vi. 7. Luke x. 1. On some of the more solemn feasts and ceremonies of the Church, the whole congregation was accustomed to join in procession with the clergy: and at the time that free schools were attached to religious houses and cathedrals, the ancient rituals direct that the order of procession shall be the presbyter-bishops, then the monks, then the school, and then the other processioners and sojourners; two of the acolytes with candelabra and censers, one bearing the gospel and reading, &c.—"Glossarium ad Scriptores, Mediæ et Inmfiæ Latinitatis," by Charles Du Fresne, Seign. Du Cange, Paris, 1734. fol. vol. v cols. 873-876, where the various species of religious processions are enumerated. It is probable, however, that the peculiar kind referred to by Dean Colet, were similar to the following mentioned in connection with St. Paul's School in Strype's "Historical Memorials," vol. iii. A. D. 1554. "On the 25th (January) being St. Paul's day, there was a general procession of St. Paul by every parish, both priests and clerks in copes, to the number of an hundred and sixty, singing 'Salve festa dies;' with ninety crosses borne. The procession was through Cheap unto Leadenhall; and before went two schools; that is first all the children of the Gray Friars, and then those of St. Paul's School." p. 208.—"March 8th, was a general procession from St. Paul's through Cheap, down Bucklersbury, and so through Walbrook, up Budge-row and Watling-Street, and so to St. Paul's again. The processioners were all the children of St. Paul's School, and of the Hospital of Christ's Church; the Bishop, the Lord Mayor and Alderman, all the Crafts, with the clerks and priests singing." Ibid. p. 210. The direction that the children of St. Paul's School shall "not sing out" when walking in these processions, appears to be almost synonymous with an order in the monastic rule of St. Dunstan, that convents should proceed to morning mass "silently psalmodising;" which referred to the rule that in whatever occupation a religious person was engaged, a psalm was always to be in the mouth or the thoughts; the psalms being also particularly learned by children. "British Monachism," by the Rev. T. D. Fosbroke, Lond. 1817, 4to. pp. 54, 47 note b. The practice of repeating litanies in procession, commenced about A.D. 400, when they were recited by the people walking barefoot; and about A.D. 500 the Council of Orleans enjoined that they should be used at one certain time of the year, in the way of public procession. When Augustine came to England as a missionary in A.D. 596, he entered into Canterbury with his followers in procession, carrying before them the picture of Christ and a silver cross, and singing the Litanies; by which the English were particularly interested.

[b] The following passage in Lily's "Carmen de Moribus" shews that the writing referred to was required for setting down the lessons dictated by the Master; verses 15-20. Scalpellum, calami, atramentum, charta, libelli, Sint semper studiis arma parata tuis. Si quid dictabo, scribes; at singula rectè: Nec macula, aut scriptus menda, sit ulla tuis. Sed tua nec laceris dictata, aut carmina, chartis Mandes, quæ libris inseruisse, decet. And when to study thou shalt be addrest, Let all its weapons ready near thee rest: Penknife and quills, ink, paper, books to guide Thy thoughts or pen, still round thee be supplied. Then if I dictate, write with truth and grace, Nor blot nor error shall thy script deface; But books alone for dictates are most fit, Nor should thy verses on loose leaves be writ. The custom of teaching by dictation at this period is repeatedly mentioned in the school-colloquies of Mathurinus Corderius who was contemporaneous with Lily.

[c] The same dialogues also contain an example of a youth whose "mind is not for learning" desiring the master's intercession that he should be taken from school and placed to some trade suitable to his genius. "Corderii Colloquiorum Centuria Selecta," by John Clarke, Coll. xxxiii.

[d] Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 124—128, also prefixed to "Ioanniss Coleti Theologi, olim Decani Divi Pavli, Aeditio, uno cum quibusdam G. Lilij Grammatices Rudimentis. Antw. 1530. Mense Augusti. 12 mo. At the end of the above is inserted the system of religious instruction adapted for the boys of St. Paul's School; consisting of the Articles of the Faith, the names and nature of the Seven Sacraments, Moral precepts of Living. Symbolum Apostolorum, Oratio Dominica, Salutatio Angelica, the Latin Prayer to Jesus already given, and the Institution of a Christian Man, by Erasmus, in Latin verse.

[e] A similar course of reading is also thus recommended in the excellent English Address to the Reader, prefixed to the "Introduction of the Parts of Speaking for children and young beginners into Latin Speach."—"When these concordes be well known unto them, (an easie and pleasant paine if the foregrounds be well and thoroughly beaten in) et them not continue in learning of their rules orderly as they lie in the Syntax, but rather learne some pretty booke, wherein is contained not only the eloquence of the tongue, but also a good plaine lesson of honestie and godlinesse."

[f] The following verses of Lily's "Carmen de Moribus" are almost a poetical paraphrase of this part of the founder's statutes. Et quoties loqueris, memor esto loquare Latinè; Et, veluti scopulos, barbara verba fuge.—v. 47. Sed tu nec stolidos imitabere grammaticastros, Ingens Romani dedecus eloquii; Quorum tam fatuus nemo, aut tam barbarus ore est, Quem non auctorem barbara turba probet. Grammaticas rectè si vis cognoscere leges, Discere si cupias cultiùs ore loqui; Addiscas veterum clarissima scripta virorum Et quos auctores turba Latina docet. Nunc te Virgilius, nunc te ipse Terentius optat, Nunc simul amplecti te Ciceronis opus. Quos, non didicit, nil præter somnia vidit, Certat et in tenebris vivere Cimmeriis.—v. 53—64. Be mindful Latin still to speak with grace, >And shun as rocks each barbarous word and phrase,— Nor copy smatterers vain and void of sense, The great disgrace of Roman eloquence: Though there be none of all that tribe so wild, Whom the rude herd hath not an author styled. But thou, who wouldst with grammar pure be fraught, To speak with eloquence who wouldst be taught; Thee let the best and soundest teachers lead, And still the old illustrious authors read. Sometimes Virgilius courts thee to his page, And sometimes Terence charms thee from the stage; Or sometimes matchless Cicero invites: To those who know him not, what lost delights! They have seen nought but dreams and empty sound, And still would live in darkness most profound.

[a] Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 368, 369. An ancient book expressed by letters on the back to be "of great value," and to have been "saved from the fire of London," containing the above Statutes and purporting to have been written by Colet's own hand, was produced in evidence before the Parliament Commissioners for enquiring into Public Charities; but it is observed respecting the above accounts of the land, &c. that "this enumeration is not to be found at the end of the copy of the statutes which is entered in the said ancient book produced by the Mercers Company, nor in either of the two other ancient copies also produced by the Clerk of the Company to the Commissioners." Third Report concerning Charities, Appendix, p. 164.

[b] The ancient grammars which were in general use from the sixth to the sixteenth century, were chiefly the following. That of Aelias Donatus, grammarian of the fourth century, the Master of St. Jerome, after whom a grammar was often called Donat: the "Arte Grammaticia," &c. of Priscianua, the celebrated grammarian of the sixth century: and the "Doctrinate Puerorum" of Alexander De Ville Dien, or Dolensis, so called from his birth-place at Dol, in Bretagne, who lived in the thirteenth century. The latter was written in leonine verse, and continued in general use until 1514, when an assembly at Malines declared that the "Commentarii Grammatici" of John Despautère, or Van Pauteren, a celebrated grammarian called the Priscian of the Netherlands, was easier and better adapted to youths. It is supposed by Wood that the first English grammatical work of merit was that by John Holt, of Magdalen College, and Usher of Magdalen School, Oxford, entitled "Lac Puerorum, M. Holti. Mylke for Children. Enprynted at London by Wynkyn De Worde, in flete streete at the sygne of the sonne." 4to. no date: It is dedicated to Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, and preceded by some very elegant Latin verses by Sir Thomas More, to whom Holt had been tutor. This was succeeded by the grammatical works of John Stanbridge, and his scholar Robert Whyttynton, Thomas Linacre, &c. It may also be proper to add to these notices, that from the eleventh century the ordinary Latin Dictionary was the "Elementarium Doctrinæ Rudimentum," an alphabetical glossary by Papias, which was enlarged by Ugution and Hugh of Pisa. On these works were most probably founded the earliest printed English and Latin Dictionaries, entitled "Promptorium Parvulorum sive Clericorum Medulla Grammatic," by Richard Fraunces, a preaching-friar, first printed by Richard Pynson, May 5th, 1499. fol.; and "Ortus Vocabulorum: alphabetico ordine fere omnia quæ in Catholico breviloquo Cornucopia Gemma vocabulorum atque Medulla Grammatices ponuntur cum perpuleris Additoribus Ascens et Vernaculæ Linguæ Anglicanæ expositionem continens:" printed by Wynkyn de Worde, Westm. 1500, fol. The latter work consists of a short grammar and a large dictionary, containing upwards of 700 pages, compiled by John Balbi, or De Genoa; and was first printed by Gutenberg at Mentz in 1460.

[c] Rudimenta Grammatices à Johanne Coleto, Decano Ecclesiæ Sancti Pauli, London, in usum Scholae ab ipso institutæ. Lond. 1510, 1534, 4to. 1539, 8vo.—This part of the Grammar is generally called the Accidence; a name which is explained by Christopher Cellario, to refer to a book describing the various accidents which are attributed to nouns and verbs. In the modern accidence is also included the English Syntax, which was composed by Lily; as appears by the title of several ancient editions, "Gulielmi Lilii Angli Rudimenta," beginning "When I have an Englyshe, &c." Antw. 1530, 1534. 12o. Since Lily's time, however, it has been greatly improved both with regard to method and an enlargement of double the quantity. The older impressions of this book coutain Colet's epistle to Lily, the principles of the Christian religion, and the Founder's regulations for admitting children into St. Paul's School.—Wood, in his "Athenæ Oxonienses," vol. i. col. 33, questions if Colet were the author of these Rudiments, observing that "this is generally said to be written by Lily; yet some there are that stick not to tell us that the said introduction was written by Dr. Colet or David Tolley. Dr. Bliss, however, rightly remarks that the work certainly was the composition of Dean Colet; which is also confirmed by the statements of Ward and Baker.

[d] "Libellus de Octo Orationis Partium Constructione." Paris apud Nic. Crispinum, 1515, 8vo. Lovain 1523. 8vo. "Absolutissimum de Octo Orationes Partium Constructione, Libellus." Antw. 1530. 12o. Many of the examples of expression in this part of the Latin Grammar are historical, and refer to the public events of the period when it was composed, about the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII.: as the prosecution of Empson and Dudley for extortion, in 1510, "Regum est tuere leges," the King is to defend the laws; "Refert omnium animadverti in malos," it concerns all that the bad be punished. In other editions of the syntax the examples were also adapted to the period of the impression; as in that of 1520, "Audito Regem Doroberniam proficisci," I hear that the King has set out to Canterbury, referring to Henry's rapid journey to that city to meet the Emperor Charles V. "Meruit sub rege in Gallium," he served under the King in France; alluding to the Emperor Maximilian, being retained by Henry VIII. at 100 crowns a day, and fighting under the English standard at Terouenne, in Flanders 1513. Similar instances are even still more numerous. In the latter edition of the Syntax by Erasmus, some of the examples related to Colet, as "Vixit Romæ, studiit Oxoniæ, natus est Londinio, discessit Londino," he lived at Rome, studied at Oxford, was born and died at London. In the commencement of the English Introduction also, instead of the words "Joannes is my proper name,' referring to Colet, the name of Prince Edward was inserted by Dr. Richard Cox, his tutor, afterwards Bishop of Ely; and "Henricus Anglia" placed at the beginning of the Latin part. Fuller's "Church History," cent. xvi. book v. p. 168. Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 13. Ward's "Preface to Lily's Grammar."

[a] Georgii Lilii "Elogia Virorum Illustrium." 1559. 8vo. p. 89.

[b] "Gymnasiarcha apud Monasteriensis Grammat." Edit. Antw. 1536.—Preface to "A Short Introduction of Grammar (Lily's Improved)" by John Ward. Lond. 1808. 12mo.—"De Octo Orationis Partium Constructione libellus: æditus a Gulielmo Lilio; emendatus ab Erasmo Roterod. et Scholiis non solum Henrici Primaci veterum, etiam doctissimi Leonardi Coxi illustratus." Lond. 1540. 4to. Printed by Thomas Berthelet.

[c] "Annotationes in libri Gulielmi Lilii de Latine Nominibus Generibus," &c. Basil. 1532. 4to.

[d] Sunt quæ deficiunt genere adjectiva notanda, De quibus, atque aliis, alibi tibi mentio fiet. Note here, defective adjectives there are, Of which, with others, we shall speak elsewhere.

[e] In an edition of the grammar printed in 1585 the author's name is inserted Rob. Robins.; in another of 1596, are only the initials R. R.; that of London, 1606, is altered again to Thomæ Robertsoni; and that of Cambridge, 1621, to Rob. Robins.: later editions, differing from all the former, have it printed Tho. Robinson, which is confirmed by William Haine in his Epistle to Lily's rules construed. The following is the full title to Robertson's Annotations on Lily.—"Gvlielmi Lilii, olim Scholæ Pavlinæ apvd Londinvm Moderatoris, de Latinorvm, Nominvm Generibvs, de Verborom Præteritis et Svpinis; Regulæ non minvs vtiles qvam compendiosæ, cvm Annotationibvs Thomæ Robertsoni, Eboracensis. Qvibvs accessit de Nominibvs Heteroclitis, de Verbis Defectivis, ac demum de Versibvs Pangendis Auctarium, neuquitam pænitendum, per eundem Thomam Robertsonvm appositis ubique Annotationibvs." Basil. 1532.

[f] The composition of this poem, and of even some parts of the Latin Grammar assigned to Lily, is attributed by Thomas Hearne to that John Leland, who lived in the reign of Henry VI., taught "Literas Humaniores" near St. Fridiswide's Church at Oxford, died and was buried there April 29th, 1428, and was called "Senior," or "Grammaticus," to distinguish him from John Leland, the King's Antiquary to Henry VIII., who was born about 1506. The following is a translation of the passage referred to, taken from Hearne's Præfatio to the "Chronicon sive Annales Prioratus de Dunstaple," Oxf. 1733. 8vo. vol. i. p. lvii.; when speaking of Prior Richard de Morinus, who died A.D. 1244.—"Nor should any think that Richard spent all his care in vain in being thus vigilant, and troubling himself with so many labours in France for the benefit of children; since, in my estimation at least, to him should be attributed the method of teaching grammar usurped by us in England, which then became so very much obscured as to be almost lost; until a long time afterward John Leland, surnamed "Grammaticus,"—(a most sagacious man, and sufficiently learned in Latin literature for his time, whom our greatest personages of Oxford regard with admiration,)—for a great while applied the grammatical rules more commodiously to the understanding and capacities of children, a good part of which were approved by William Lily himself; who also altered Leland's Admonitions of a Schoolmaster, and then published them as if they had been his own: just as if the works of others could be made to appear ours. This is moreover to be seen in certain ancient remains in our libraries; of which the Bodleian ought in justice to be enumerated. These Admonitions have been retained in the latest and most accurate editions of Lily's Grammar, and they should not be laid aside, since the youth of these our times have greatly degenerated, for evil customs will pervert nature itself. Those who esteem that Grammar to be the best work for preceptors, (who should learn as well as teach, and refrain themselves as well as restrain others)—allege that none can be either greater or better because it had the bounty of the state, and was the best a long time ago: but Marcus Tullius Cicero has declared, whatever certain Tully-haters may think of it, that there would appear to be some particular gift of Providence for every generation and being, that all to the utmost of their power should strive after the perfection of eloquence." —A list of the grammatical works attributed to Leland will be found in the Rev. William Huddesford's "Lives of those eminent Antiquaries, John Leland, Thomas Hearne, and Anthony à Wood;" Oxf. 1772. 8vo. vol. i. pp. 2, 109:—taken from a MS. volume belonging to Worcester Cathedral, No. 798, p. 19. They consist of "Tractatus Grammaticus," qui incipit "Philosophia est genus et cæteræ disciplinæ species"—"Tractatus duo diverso de Octo Partibus Orationis:"—"Tractatus diversarum Figurarum:" —"Ars Concordantarum:"—"Liber Accidentium secundum Magistri Johannis Lelandi:"—"Declamationes partim Latine partim Græce:"—"Tractatum de Generibus."— It may be here noticed, as perhaps not being very generally known, that an English poetical paraphrase of part of the verses called "Qui mihi," will be found in the "New London Spelling Book," lessons cxliii, cxlvi, cxlvii; entitled "Rules and Maxims of Moral Conduct."

[g] "Tabulæ Schematibus et Tropis Petri Mosellani." Antw. 1529. Par. 1529. 12mo.

[a] Printed at the end of Robertson's other grammatical tracts, Basil, 1532. 4to. A translation of this part of the grammar was executed by Barnaby Hampton, entitled "Prosodia Construed, and the meaning of the most difficult words therein plainly illustrated: being an addition to the Construction of Lily's Rules," Lond. 1765. 12mo.

[b] "Gulielmi Lilii. Grammatici et Poetæ eximii, Paulinæ Scolæ olim Moderatoris, de Generibus Nominum, ac Verborum Præteritis et Supinis. Regulæ pueris apprime vitilis. Opus recognitum et adauctum, cum Nominum ac Verborum Interpretamentis: per Joannem Rituissi Scholæ Paulinæ Præceptoris." Col. 1521. 4to. The interpretations consist of two alphabetical lists of the most uncommon nouns and verbs occurring in the preceding rules, followed by a very few words of explanation: as "Heros, vir divinus et semideus;" "Psallo, cano instrumento musico."

[c] "Rudimenta Grammatices, et docendi methodus, non tam Scolæ Gypswichianæ, per Reverend. D. Thomam Cardinalem, Eborae. feliciter institutæ, quam omnibus aliis totius Angliæ Scolis præscripta." Joan. Graphæus excudebat, impensis Arnoldi Birckmanni. Antw. 1534. The letter is addressed "Thomas Cardinalis Ebor. &c. Gypsvychianæ Scolæ Præceptoribus;" and is dated "ex ædibus nostris 1528, Cal. Sept." (1st.) "We suppose," says Wolsey, in noticing Lily's improvements in teaching, "that it is unknown to none how great an effort of the mind is study, to which our diligence should be always directed; not for our own private benefits, but for that of the state and nation which should be chiefly consulted by us in all our labours." The establishment at Ipswich was divided into eight classes similar to that of Dean Colet, and the Cardinal therefore adds, "which order should be used for teaching the children who have been admitted into our school, and in reading to them the same authors. These rudiments will also be easily explained in it, and the children imbued therewith; for it greatly concerns us to be established under the best kind of government. In this way, then, proceed, to illustrate the most graceful studies, and deserve well of your country."

[d] Preface to "Lily's Grammar." Proheme to the "Castel of Helthe," by Sir Thomas Elyot. Lond. 1541. 4to. signat. A. iii. reverse. The Prymer published in 1545 was also said to be "set forth by the King's Highnes and his Cleargye." "Grammatices Latinæ Compendium," by Thomas Haynes. Lond. 1673, 1649, 8vo.—Wood's "Athenæ Oxoniensis," 4to. Vol. i. cols. 320, 321.—A very fine copy of the complete edition of Lily's Grammar. Lond. 1542, 4to. printed by Thomas Berthelet on vellum, and illuminated with coloured and gilded borders and initial letters, is in the collection of the Rev. C. M. Cracherode, in the British Museum. It is entitled "An Introdvction of the Eyght Partes of Speche, and the Construction of the same, compiled and sette forthe by the commaundement of our most gracious Souerayne Lorde the King. Anno. MD.XLII. Its contents are Alphabetvm Latino-Anglicvm, 1 page in a painted border only:" "In nomine Patris," the Lord's Prayer, Salutation, Creed, &c. in Latin and English, 7 pages; title-page in a wood-cut border, coloured; the King's order for using the Grammar, 1 page, in English: address "to the Reder," 3 pages: "Ad Pvbem Anglicam Hexastichon," with a wood-cut beneath of the royal arms supported by boys, and the words "God save the King," 1 page: "An Introduction," &c. beginning "In speche be these viii. partes followyng," 37 pages: "Godly Lessons for chyldren," 4 pages: "The Concordes of Latyne Speche," "For the due joyning together," &c. 16 pages: "Qui Mihi discipulus," 3 pages: "Christiani Hominis Institvtvm per Erasmvm Roterodamvm," 7 pages: on the reverse of the last, Berthelet's large device and sign of Lucretia. The whole of this part of the book is without pagination. "Institvtio Compendiaria totivs Grammaticæ, qvam et ervditissimvs et illvstrisimvs Rex noster hoc nomine evvlgare ivssit, vt non alia qvam hac vna per totam Angliam pueris prælegeretur. Londini Anno. MD.XLII.: within a wood-cut border, coloured: "Totivs Angliæ Lvdimagistris ac Grammaticæ Præceptoribvs," 4 pages: "Ad Lectorem, *egkw\mion tou *basile/os," 2 pages: "Errata Insigniora," 2 pages: "De Grammatica et eius partibus; De Orthographia," 8 pages numbered on the side only: "De Etymologia, to p. 46 a: Syntaxis, to p. 68 a. Prosodia, to p. 80 a: Colophon on the reverse "Londini ex Officina." Thomæ Bertheleti Typis Impres. Cvm Privilegio ad Imprimendvm Solvm. Anno Verbi Incarnati. MD.XLII."

[e] Ward notices this enquiry in the visitation articles of the 1st year of Elizabeth, 1559, art. xxx.; and in those of Bishop Juxon, 1640. Fuller adds that "a stipend of 4l. a year was allowed the King's Printer for printing the grammar, and that it was penal to teach any other. He also alludes to a later enquiry of the above kind in his "Church History of Britaine," Cent. xvi. book v. p. 168, when he says "I have been told how lately Bishop Buckridge, examining a free-school in his diocess of Rochester, the scholars were utterly ignorant of Lily's rules as used to others: whereat the Bishop exclaimed, What! are there Puritans in grammar?" The principal entire editions of the old Lily's Grammar are as follow: "Brevissima Institutio, seu ratio Grammatices cognoscendæ ad omnium puerorum utilitatem præscripta." Lond. 1518, 1532, 1574, 1606. Eadem Cum notis Robertsoni. Basii. 1532. 4to. Oxf. 1651. 8vo. Lond. 1661. 8vo. Eadem, cum observationis Auctior. Oxf. 1673. "Institutio Compendaria totius Grammaticæ." Lond. 1542. 4to. The editions of the Improved Grammar by Ward are extremely numerous.

[f] Synod. Anglican. pp. 115, 117, 123, 124. Append.

[a] Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 148—151.—"Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami De Duplici Copia Verborum ac Rerum Commentarii Duo; ad Authore ipso aucti:" Argent. 1516. 4to. With "Epistola Erasm. Rot. ad Jacobum Vuimphelingum Selastatinum." Argent. ex ædibus Hulderici Morardi. Mense Jan. 4. 1521. 4to. "De Copia Verborum ac Rerum Commentarii Duo," with his books "De Ratione Studii," and "De Laudibus Literariæ," Basil. 1521. 4to. printed by Froben. "De Utraque Verborum ac Rerum Copia; ad sermonem et stylum formandum utilissimum," lib. ii. Lond. 12mo. no date. "Epitome Libri De Copia Verborum." Lond. 1527. 4to.

[b] Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 143—145. Erasmus attributes this work almost entirely to Dean Colet in two of his epistles, and states that he had only put it into verse in a plain and simple manner, speaking of it as a trifle, though valuable in the benefit which it might be of to youth. The Latin and English versions are both printed in the Appendix to the same work, No. xi. pp. 442-460. "Erasmi Opera," vol. v. cols. 1357—1359. The summary of religious instruction referred to by Dr. Knight was very similar to that of Erasmus, and was called "The godly and pious Institution of a Christen man, counteynyne the Exposition or Interpretation of the commune Crede of the Seuen Sacramentes, of the X Commandements, and of the Pater Noster, and the Aue Maria, Justification and purgatory." It was drawn up by the Bishops in 1534, and was printed by Thomas Berthelet in 1557 in 4to. and 8vo.

[c] Knight's "Life of Colet," pp. 167, 169.

[d] "Strype's Stow's Survey of London," vol. 1, book i. chap. xxii. p. 124.

[e] Ibid. Vol. I. book i. chap. xxv. p. 167. "From this school," says Strype, p. 164, "I was sent to Cambridge; having had my education there by the good providence of God for nearly the space of six years: and therefore it will be pardoned to my public gratitude to that place, if I insist a little longer in my declaration of the first founding of it, and of matters relating thereto." Knight, in his "Life of Colet," p. 109, note z, also observes that, "the new school was built according to the ancient model, though much more magnificently; but his testimony is not of equal value with that of Strype, though he was likewise a scholar of the same institution; since Dr. Knight died Dec. 10th, 1746, aged 72, and consequently had never seen the ancient school; whilst Strype was born Nov. 1st, 1643, and died Dec. 11th, 1737.

[a] In Knight's account of the "Inscriptions in about St. Paul's School," it is stated that these words on the windows were almost defaced. "Life of Colet," Appendix, No. VIII. pp. 434—436. Legends and sentences on walls and windows were peculiarly characteristic of the more stately buildings of England from the thirteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth.

[b] At the upper seat of each class was the word Capitaneus, with the rank of the class and the number of scholars which it contained, as ordered by the founder. The classes consisted of eight in all; of which the first three comprised twenty-one scholars each, and the remainder eighteen each." Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 435.— Upon the re-erection of St. Paul's School after the Great Fire, the following inscription was added to the above, composed, as it is considered by Strype, by Samuel Cromleholme, Head-Master at the time. Quod Faustum sit et Felix. Ad seræ Posteritatis imitationem Famæque suæ Aeternitatum: Post luctuosam Urbis Londinensis Deflagrationem A.D. CIC.ICC.LXVI Amplissima MERCERORUM Societas Fidem Fundatori *tw *makarith, datum sanctissimè per solvens, SCHOLAM HANC de Integro Extruendam Suscepit Annoque CIC.ICC.LXX. Perfecit Domino RICHARDO FORD, Equite, Urbis Præore, Richardo Clutterbuck, Armigero, Societatis Magistro, Scholæ verò custode totiusque negotii assiduo diligentissimoque Procuratoræ Domino Roberto Ware. *eu)logi/a *kuri/ou e)pi\ kefalh=s dikai/w. Prov. x. 6. *mnh/mh au)tou= met' e)gkwmi/wn. — v. 8. This inscription was afterwards placed in the Library. There are several variations between the copy given by Strype and that printed by Dr. Knight.

[c] An excellent engraving of this bust by Vertue is given in Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 435; where also it is stated that it was erected in the place where the image of Jesus anciently stood. The following was the inscription beneath the effigy of the Infant Christ. Ibid. p. 241. Discite me primum, pueri, atque effingite puris Moribus; inde pias addite Literulas. Children learn first to form pure minds by Me, Then add fair learning to your piety. This bust is now placed in the Head-Master's house, over the drawing-room door. A copy of it in marble by Bacon, with an improved attitude, is erected at the upper end of the school-room, over the Head-Master's seat.

[d] The authority on which this information was given is stated by Strype in the margin to be that of John Bagford, the antiquary, who has also in other places referred to the execution of figures, &c. in terra-cotta, the material of which Colet's bust is made, as a lost art. A more particular notice of it likewise from Bagford, with a reference to that bust, occurs in the following passage from Strype's "Life of John Stowe," prefixed to the "Survey of London," in describing his monumental effigy, Vol. I. p. xiv. "This figure of Stow, which seems to be stone, I have been told by an ingenious person in antiquities, to be nothing else but clay burnt; a fine art known and practised in former times. Of this sort there were several effigies in churches before the Great Fire. One of these was the head of Dr. Colet, set up both in St. Paul's Church, whereof he was Dean, and in his school hard by, founded by him, which I well remember, since I was a scholar there divers years before the Fire. But now there be scarcely any remainders of that kind, excepting this of Stow, standing in a Church that escaped the spreading conflagration Anno 1666, wherein so many churches were destroyed." The art of modelling in terra-cotta, or baked clay, appears to have been extensively practised in England from the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century, and "bakyn images of erthe" of kneeling angels bearing the emblems of the crucifixion, a dead Christ coloured, and histories of the Nativity and Resurrection, were ordered by Henry VII. to be exhibited on all festival days upon the altar in his Chapel at Westminster. In the beautiful gate erected at Whitehall, after the design of Hans Holbein, for Henry VIII., were several busts in terra-cotta, painted and gilt, three of which are considered to have represented Henry VII., Henry VIII. at the age of sixteen, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; they are supposed to have been modelled by Torregiano, who executed those for the Chapel of Henry VII. Another curious instance of the ancient use of this material in England is shewn in a very beautiful moulding, supposed to have been executed in a mould in the time of Edward the Confessor, found in the old Palace at Westminster. "Antiquities of Westminster," by the late J. T. Smith, Lond. 1807, 4to. pp. 22, 23, 44.

[e] "God's terrible Advice to the City by Plague and Fire," by the Rev. Thomas Vincent, 1666. 4to. "Diary of John Evelyn, Esq." Sept. 4th.

[f] "An exact Surveigh of the Streets, Lanes, and Churches, comprehended within the Ruins of the City of London, first described in Six Plats, 10th December, Ao. Domi. 1666. By the Order and Directions of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the said City, John Leake, John Fennings, Willm. Marr, Willm. Leyborne, Thomas Streete, Richard Shortgrave, Surveyors; and now reduced into one entire Plat by John Leake, for the use of the Commissioners for the regulation of Streets, Lanes, &c." Copied by G. Vertue, 1723. Two Sheets. It has been suggested that the late St. Paul's School, from its asserted similarity to the original building, was only the old edifice restored; but Pepys speaks of seeing it entirely burned, Sept. 7th, with the Cathedral, Ludgate, Fleet Street, &c.

[a] Inscription in the late School-room. Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 109, note z.

[b] A view of the building in 1724 is inserted in Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 109. The lower windows of the private dwelling are there represented as having stone and iron galleries before them. The entrances to the Masters' dwellings have only hatches to the doors.

[c] These arms, with those belonging to the Dean of St. Paul's, are represented beneath the annexed Plate on the left, and are thus blazoned.—Impaled: 1st coat, Gules, two swords in saltire proper, the hilts and pomels or, in chief a D Argent, for the Deanery of St. Paul's: 2nd coat, Sable on chevron between three hinds trippant, Argent, as many amulets of the field, for Colet of London. The other shield contains the arms of the Mercers' Company, namely, Gules, a demi-virgin couped below the shoulders, issuing from clouds all proper vested, and is crowned with an eastern crown, or, her hair loose, and wreathed about the temples with roses, the whole within an orle of clouds, all proper.

[d] "Londinum Redivivum," by J. P. Malcolm, Vol. III. Lond. 1803. 4to. p. 193. A catalogue of the books in this Library in 1724, is given in Knight's "Life of Colet," Appendix No. XXII. pp. 475—494. There is also another entitled "A Catalogue of all the Books in the Library of St. Paul's School, with the names of all the Benefactors; as given in by George Charles, LL.D., High-Master, in the time of John Nodes, Esq. Surveyor-Accomptant of the School; dated the 2nd of March, 1743. In the "New View of London," by Edward Hatton. Lond. 1708. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 709, it is stated that the books "were given by several gentlemen educated there; particularly Mr. Davenport, not long since gave in books £ 20." A donation of this kind, however, appears in the "Diary of Samuel Pepys," as early as Dec. 27th. 1661, where he says, "In the morning to my bookseller's to bespeak a Stephen's Thesaurus, for which I offer £ 4. to give to Paul's School." The list contained in the Appendix to Knight's "Life of Collet," No. ix. pp. 437—440, consists partly of "Benefactores Bibliothecæ." In the "Third Report concerning Charities," p. 238, it is stated that "an excellent classical library is annexed to the School for its use, and kept up at a considerable expense to its funds."

[e] Two interesting views of the exterior and interior of the second St. Paul's School, are contained in Ackermann's "History of the Colleges of Wnchester, &c. and the Public Schools of England." Lond. 1816. 4to.

[f] Hatton's "New View of London," vol. ii. p. 709.

[g] Private Acts 58th Geo. III. 1818, chap. xxii. Royal Consent received 23rd May, 1818.

[a] "Third Report concerning Charities," p. 235.

[b] "Third Report on Education of the Lower Orders of the Metropolis," 1816, pp. 176, 179.

[c] By Order of the Court of Assistants of the Mercers' Company, the following Regulations are to be observed in the School. "That the EASTER Holidays begin on the Thursday in the week before Good Friday, and continue for one week only; to be computed on the Monday immediately following the said Thursday. That the MIDSUMMER Holidays commence on the Thursday in the week before Midsummer Day, and continue for Six Weeks; to be computed from the Monday next following the said Thursday. That the CHRISTMAS Holidays commence on the Thursday in the week before Christmas Day, and continue for One Month: to be computed from the Monday immediately following the said Thursday. That the only Holidays beside those already mentioned shall be, 1. the Queen's Birth Day, 2. Shrove Tuesday, 3. Ash Wednesday, 4. the Founder's Day, 5, Whit Monday, 6. Whit Tuesday, 7. the King's Birth Day, 8. the King's Coronation Day, 9. The 5th of November, 10. Lord Mayor's Day. That Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, in every week, be considered as Half-Holidays; and on those days that the school remain open until 12 o'clock. That from the Monday after the first of November, to the Monday before the first of March, the School do open at Eight o'clock in the Morning instead of the usual hour of Seven; and shut at Four o'clock in the Afternoon instead of the usual hour of Five." On the election of Dr. Sleath, however, he ordered that the school should close at 4 o'clock throughout the year.

[d] Evidence of the Rev. Dr. Sleath in "Appendix to Third Report concerning Charities," p. 180.

[e] The term Apposer signifies an Examiner, in which sense there is an officer in the Court of Exchequer called the Foreign Apposer, and in the form of Confirmation in the First Liturgy of Edward VI., the rubric directs the Bishop or such as he shall appoint to appose a child in the Catechism. The word Appose is derived from the old French verb Apposer, to question, and the Latin Appono to put, set to, charge, or reckon with; and probably the only modern use of the term is as above, to express the putting of grammatical questions to a child to pose or puzzle him. "Johnson's Dictionary, by Rev. H. Todd." Pepys in mentioning the Apposition of St. Paul's School, Jan. 9th, 1659-60, calls it Opposition, which Lord Braybrooke explains in a note to signify declamation, "in which there were opponents and respondents:" but in the same Diary, Febr. 4th, 1662-63 the writer says, "back again to St. Paul's School, and saw the head-forms posed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Dr. Wilkins and Outiam were the examiners."

[a] This donation consisted of a moiety of the tythes of Woodhorne, Seaton, Witherington, Creswell, Horton alias Horneton, Hirst, Errington, and Linton, in the County of Northumberland; and of the sum of 16,000l. Bank Three Per Cents. Reduced Annuities. The first receipt of the undivided moiety of the tythes by the Company was in 1685, and amounted to 108l. 17s. 6d.; but in 1815-16 the produce was 520l. 17s. 6d. or the average value of seven years 435l.; and the gross annual income then amounted to about 900l. "Third Report concerning Charities," p. 236. Appendix. p. 172.

[b] In addition to the nine Campden Exhibitions, the Mercer's Company has appropriated 450l. of the revenues of the School to the establishment of nine others, of 50l. each open to any College of either University. "Third Report on Charities." p. 238. There are also two Exhibitions to St. John's College, Cambridge, of 10l. per annum each; and five founded by Mr. — Perry, to Trinity College, of the same amount, but if the number be incomplete the whole 50l. are equally divided. Malcolm, in his "Londinum Redivivum," Vol. III. p. 194, states there are in all twenty-seven Exhibitions belonging to St. Paul's School. With respect to Scholars intending to offer themselves for these Exhibitions, the following regulations have been at various times ordered by the Mercers' Company; and were formerly painted on a tablet in the Old Library, 1732, March 16th. That no Scholar be permitted to petition for an Exhibition who does not lodge his petition in the Clerks' office at least one month before the Apposition-Court; to be communicated by the Clerk to the Wardens of the School for the time being. 1754, March 22nd. That whenever any such petitions are presented, the Head-Master shall be called in and asked as to the qualifications of the petitioners. 1763, March 24th. That no scholar who shall go to the University without the consent of the Court of Assistants, or the Surveyor-Accomptant of the School, for the time being, shall be permitted to petition for any one of the School Exhibitions. 1773, March 4th. That no scholar be permitted to petition, until he shall have been full four years in the school upon the foundation, by appointment of the Surveyor or Accountant. J. P. Malcom's "Londinum Redivivum," vol. iii. p. 193.

[c] Dr. Sleath stated that he received 12l. 12s. a year for the rent of the house at Stepney given by the Founder for the Head-Master to resort unto; and 10l. 10s. from the Mercers' Company in respect to that house as a compensation for the low rent at which it is let. "Third Report concerning Charities." Appendix. p. 180.

[d] Knight's "Life of Collet," Apendix No. VI. pp. 370—388, in which are given short memoirs of each master. Carlisle's "Endowed Grammar Schools," vol. ii. p. 95.

[e] To this Master the Mercers' Company allowed a retiring pension of 1000l. per annum to compensate him for the loss of his dwelling, the advantage of taking boarders, &c. and because he was "a person of great merit," who had served the school for forty-five years, and was upwards of eighty when he was superannuated. The Company also allowed an annuity of 60l. to the Sur-Master's widow.

[f] "Third Report on Education of the Lower Orders of the Metropolis," 1816, pp. 177, 178. "Third Report on Charities," p. 239. Appendix to ditto, pp. 181, 182, where will be found the times and sums by which these salaries have been advanced; they reached their present amount in 1814, upon the appointment of Dr. Sleath.

[g] Pretatory Epistle to Erasmus "De Copia Verborum, Erasmi Opera," vol. i. cols. 1. 2.

[h] Knight's "Life of Colet," p. 156 Note.

[a] Sermon on the Child Jesus, the Great Exemplar of Youth, by Dr. Samuel Knight, Prebendary of Ely: Preached 1717-18. In Knight's "Life of Colet," the Appendix No. X p. 440, contains a list of the Sermons Preach'd and Publish'd at the Anniversary Meeting of the Gentlemen educated at St, Paul's School to this time;" the earliest of which appears to have been by Dr. Meggot, Dean of Winchester, in 1676. No. IX. of the same Appendix, p. 437, contains lists of the Stewards of the Annual festival, "The first general meeting, or Feast of the Scholars," says Knight, "was on St. Paul's Day (Jan. 25th) 1660, or year following. In the year 1664 it was intermitted till 1674, four years after the new school waserected; then revived again, and continued till 1679, when it had again an unhappy chasm till 1699, and some few years since; but now (1724), as it is again encouraged and promoted, it is to be hoped it will continue a lasting Monument of Gratitude, that cannot be more decently shown than in this way, by those who have had the happiness of being educated in this School."

[b] Wood states of this person that he was "educated, if I mistake not, under Will. Lilly, before he taught in St. Paul's School." Athenæ Oxonienses, 4to. vol. i. col. 47.

[c] A list of Lupset's works is given in the "Athenæ Oxonienses," vol. i. cols. 70, 71.

[d] Some particulars of this Divine, written by his nephew, will be found in Dr. Edmund Calamy's "Historical Account of my own Life." Lond, 1829. 8vo. vol. i. p. 57.