Law of 1647 required towns to maintain schools. This law reads as follows:

It being one chief point of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times, by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times, by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at last the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded by false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, that learning might not be buried in the grave of our fathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors, It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord has increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; providing, those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns; and it is forthwith ordered that where any town shall increase to the number of 100 families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year, that every such town shall pay £5 to the next school till they shall perform this order. (20: 60.)

Corner stone of American school system a Reformation product. If we examine this law in the light of our discussion of Reformation schools, we may note the following points. In the first place, it is perhaps the clearest expression of the Protestant theory, as opposed to the alleged Catholic theory, to be found in any of the laws establishing schools. In the preamble attention is called to the idea that formerly the Scriptures had been kept in an unknown tongue, and the Church authorities had thus been able, through their false commentaries, to cloud the true ineaning. In order to avoid a return to this condition, as a consequence of learning being buried in the graves of the older leaders, it was important that schools should be maintained. To assure this the Court placed on the statutes a law that became the corner stone of our modern American school system.

Its importance [from this standpoint] lay in the requirement by a central authority that each local community of a certain population should sustain a school in some way, and its historical value consists in the principles thus established. The outcome of this law adopted in what was the most religious as it was the most intolerant period of New England history, has been the development of a national system of secular education for many millions of children professing nearly every creed known in the wide world. (14: 231.)

It was the State as handmaid of the Church that established this law, but it continued as a fixed ideal and tradition which prevailed even after the State had been completely secularized. Towns empowered to support schools. Moreover, the law of 1647 gave the towns the right to provide for the support of the local schools "by the inhabitants in general." Outside of New England this privilege was not granted in most states until the nineteenth century. It had been legalized by earlier laws in Massachusetts, namely, those of 1634 and 1638, which provided that the towns could use "rates" or collect a contribution from all citizens for any community enterprise; but the law of 1647 applied this principle specifically to school support.

Precedents for law of 1647 not entirely English.-While the practice of towns voluntarily providing schools had existed in England, yet the chief precedents for the compulsory establishment of town schools required by this law were not English. In England, from the time of Elizabeth down to the nineteenth century, it continued to be the generally accepted principle that it was not the business of the State to enforce education. The antecedents for the principle of compulsory establishment of schools are to be found in the general belief of the Protestant reformers in the necessity of reading the Bible. The synods of the Dutch (Protestant) Church in 1586 and 1618 had ordained that schools should be everywhere established by the Church authorities. The First Book of Discipline of the Scottish Church (1560) required the establishment of schools in connection with each church, and in

1633 the Scottish Parliament passed a law requiring the same. As we have seen, the German states in the sixteenth century acted on the principle of the State's compelling the establishment of schools. Thus Massachusetts is seen to be following the general practice of other Protestant countries, and England stands out as the most prominent exception to this general tendency. In a later chapter it will be shown that many of the Massachusetts towns failed to obey the spirit of the law of 1647.

Religious basis of elementary education in other colonies. -The same religious basis for elementary education prevailed generally in the other American colonies. In Connecticut the law of 1650 establishing a school system was almost an exact reproduction, word for word, of the Massachusetts law of 1647. Outside of New England, however, the active interest of the central governments in compelling the establishment of schools was generally lacking. We shall describe one example of such a situation, namely, Pennsylvania.

Church and neighborhood schools prevailed in Pennsylvania. In colonial Pennsylvania, in contrast with Massachusetts, no general system of public schools was developed, but elementary education remained entirely in the hands of the churches and neighborhood organizations which were actuated by religious motives. William Penn had contemplated the organization of a system of public schools, but his Utopian ideals were not realized. The second general assembly of the colony (1683) passed a law requiring that all children be taught so that they could read the Scriptures and write by twelve years of age. The law soon became a dead letter, however, owing to changes in the government and the conflicting interests of such a cosmopolitan colony.

The assurance of liberty of religious worship attracted to Pennsylvania a great many Protestant religious emigrants

and exiles. These included Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, German Lutherans, members of the German Reformed Church, Moravians, and others. They were gener. ally believers in the Protestant principle of training to read the Bible as the road to salvation, and each group of religious enthusiasts set up a school as an essential part of its religious organization. These Church schools predominated in the eastern portions of the state.

In the more thinly settled and frontier parts of the state, where these compact religious communities were not found, the more mixed communities tended to establish subscription (voluntary), or "neighborhood" schools. These were generally the result of the voluntary coöperation of a few families, often stimulated by some energetic and wealthy father who desired that his children should have at least an elementary education. The neighborhood schools were most common in the western part of the state. Together with the Church schools they provided nearly all the elementary education available down to 1834.

Practice in religious elementary schools to be described. This account of the Church and neighborhood schools of Pennsylvania will conclude our discussion of the influence of the Protestant Reformation on the establishment of elementary schools. We have seen that Protestantism introduced a new theoretical basis for universal elementary education, namely, the necessity of personal study of the Scriptures for religious salvation. The Protestant governments, however, were not always as active in establishing elementary schools as might be expected. In Germany the need for elementary schools was overshadowed by the need for classical schools to train Protestant leaders. In England, in Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, the establishment of schools was left to voluntary efforts of individuals or churches. In Calvinistic Massachusetts there was the most consistent application by the central government of the principle that elementary schools should be

maintained for religious salvation. The next two chapters will describe the curriculum and methods which prevailed down to the beginning of the nineteenth century in these schools organized on the religious basis.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Concerning the general aspects of the Reformation. — 1. BEARD, C. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Hibbert Lectures, 1883. (Williams and Norgate, London, 1903.) A masterly, unbiased and readable account. Especially good for Calvin.

2. GASQUET, F. A. The Eve of the Reformation. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900.) A relatively unbiased account, from the Catholic point of view. Particularly good on the circulation of the Bible in England. See chap. viii.

3. POLLARD, A. F. Thomas Cranmer (Heroes of the Reformation Series). (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904.) Good for the English Reformation. Concerning printing and the circulation of Reformation literature. 4. Putnam, G. H. Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages. 2 vols. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1898.) A most thorough and readable account.

5. DRAPER, J. W. The Intellectual Development of Europe. 2 vols. (Harper & Brothers, revised edition, 1875.)

Concerning educational aspects of German Reformation. -6. PAINTER, F. V. N. Luther on Education. (Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia.)

7. PAULSEN, F. German Education. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908.) A brief but scholarly and readable interpretation. The best book in English for this purpose.

8. NOHLE, E. History of German School System, Report United States Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898. Vol. I. An accessible and concrete statement.

9. RUSSELL, J. E. German Higher Schools. (Longmans, Green, and Co., revised edition, 1905.)

The

Concerning educational aspects of English Reformation.. material relative to the English situation is not as satisfactory as that for the German situation.

10. WATSON, F. English Grammar Schools to 1660. (Cambridge University Press, 1909.) Contains some scattered material about elementary schools.