SUNDAY SCHOOLS. The Catholic Dictionary claims that before Sunday Schools were thought of in England, one was established at St. Sulpice (1f399) by St. J. B. de la Salle, and that even before this similar schools, open on festivals, had been established at Milan (c. 1580) by St. Charles Borromeo. The St. Sulpice Sunday School was open from noon to three o'clock. In both cases the purpose was to give secular instruction. These were not Sunday Schools in the modern sense: and it could no doubt be shown that such schools as they were were found here and there at a much earlier date. The founder of modern Sunday Schools as an organised system was Robert Raikes of Gloucester (1735-1811). Raikes started by collecting a few children from the streets on Sundays and instructing them or having them instructed in religious knowledge. In 178.5 a society was formed to establish and maintain Sunday Schools in all parts of the kingdom. In 1803 the " Sunday School
Union " was founded, to promote Sunday School work and raise Its standard. The Union is unsectarian, but mainly nonconformist. A series of simultaneous " Inter national Lessons " are drawn up for three months in advance, in order that the same lessons may be studied by all schools belonging to the Union. For these lessons careful expository notes by duly qualified writers are published a week or two in advance. " Other helps are published and supplied at the lowest possible prices, and public training, lessons, lectures, and examinations are also carried on " (William Benham). The American Sunday School Union, a development of earlier Unions (since 1791), was established in 1824. See William Ben ham: the Cath. Diet.; Chambers' Eneyel.; the D.N.R.