Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1886-11-18
kiddle-Ags Education.

Inc history OF education from thu
early christian cent ries throughout
the middle-age period is the expression
OF a one-sided developement starting
from misunderstood christianity. The
new religion was contra-natural, con
tra-earthly; its training was for heaven.
Though some may claim that this teach
ing did not lie fairly in the authoritative
records of the church, there was much
of these records TO favor it, and much
more still in he situation of the first
christians. Persecution would force
attent on from things temporal to
things eternal. The present would be
but a trial testing. This misinter-
probation was laid upon the early
christians even as il seems TO be laid
upon many unfortunate souls to-day.
] hose for whom life is ceaseless curse
need such power as may well be said to
come from on high to place the blame
where it belongs, on broken law and
wasted opportunity. The gospel of Il
heaven on earth, of heaven in and by
law, a heaven in and by the present
right life is not even now fully come,
though we give thanks for its presence
here and there.
My former paper called attention to
the following points: the early rcla-
tons of Christian cdu atom with
heather education, the gradual extern
sion of Christianity and the shaping OF
all instruction for religious life,
rabian culture the chara ter of mid
dle-age education as unnatural, contra
earthly. We shall now look directly at
this middle.age training. Where did
the teachers of the middle ages teach
the cloister schools. the cathedral
schools, and the parochial schools.
These parochial or common schoo s
never amounted to much, because the
masses of the people had little interest
in knowledge. Still, at comparatively
early time the popes established the
parochial schools by the side of the
parish 'hurch. Charlemagne ordered
that the Children should be instructed
in reading, singing, reckoning some
grammar and writing; and council
held at Mainz, before the middle OF the
ninth &C tury, required that the chill
dren should be sent either TO the clois-
ter schools or to those of the parish,
that they might learn the creed and the
! ords prayer in their own language
The cloister schools are tlassed as those
of the Benedictines. Dominicans and
Franc scans. The first Bened c;ine
monastery was founded at Monte
Casino, in the kingdom of Naples,
about 529, by st. Benedict himself
his order in reascd so wonder ully
and became so powerful that it may he
said To have been the chief means for
the spread of learning throughout the
west ON the sixth to the twelfth cen
tury. AT first the regulations o 5 &.
Benedict were for those only who had
set themselves apart to the service OF
the church. But, with the increase OF
the repu alton of the order, it became
necessary to pro ide instruction for
those scholars who were not devoting
themselves to the monkish life. In
keeping with this demand, the cloister
schools were established; there were
also so called nunneries of this order,
the first at Bischofsheim. in Fr nee,
being widely celebrated. These closter
hoOls for girls did the work
of elementary schools, and concerned
themselves especially with house hold
duties. he suprele importance of
this Benedictine order ceased in the
twelfth century. Then the Dominicans
and Franciscans took mp the work.
and, though they did not &C omplish so
mu a. the other orders, their results
were marked in providing letter school.
books. They taught mostly the ord 5
Prayer, church melodies, and Latin
From a. ONE Outlines from the History
of Eiucat on by Professor w. r
Benedict, in Popular Science Monthly
for o, tober.