From the terms of this licence it appears that the master of every school who is licensed by the ordinary must be a member of the Church of England, and must take the oath and make the subscriptions and declarations which are recited in the licence.
It is a common notion that the master of a grammar-school must be a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge, and in holy orders, and such is the present practice ; but it is by no means always the case that the rules of endowed schools require the maker to be in holy orders. The founders seem generally to have considered this a matter of indif ference; but many of them provided that if the master was in orders, or took orders, he should not at least encumber himself with the cure of souls. The principle clearly was, that the master of a grammar. school should devoto himself solely to that work ; and it was a good principle. The Court of Chancery has in various cases ordered that the master should be a clergyman, where the founder boa not so ordered. Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's School, London, ordered by his statutes that neither of the masters of that school, if in orders, nor the chaplain, shall have any benefice with cure or service which may hinder the business of the school, lie appointed a chaplain to the school, thereby appearing to intend that the religious instruction should not be given by the masters of grammar, who would be fully employed otherwise.
It has sometimes been doubted whether a master of a grammar school could hold ecclesiastical preferment with it. If the founder Las not forbidden this, there is no rule of law which prevents him. If the holding of the two offices should cause him to neglect the duties of either, the remedy is just the same ns if he neglected either of his offices for any other cause.
Many grammar-schools are only free to the children of a particular parish, or of some particular parishes ; but this privilege has occa sionally been extended to a greater surface, as in the case of Tunbridge school. Some are free to all persons, which is the case with sonic of King Edward VI:e endowments. Sometimes the number of free boys is limited, but the master is allowed to take pay scholars, either by wage or by the founder's rules. At present the practice is for masters of grammar-schools to take boarders if they choose, but in some cases the number is limited. Abuses undoubtedly have arisen from the practice of the master taking boarders, and the children of the parish or township for which the school was intended have been neglected or led to quit the school sometimes in consequence of the head master being solely intent on having a profitable boarding school. But in most cases the school has benefited by the master taking boarders; and this has frequently been the only means by which the school has been able to maintain itself as a grammar-school. When the situation has been a good one, an able master has often been found willing to take a grammar-school with a house, and a small salary attached to it, in the hope of making up a competent income by boarders. As this
can only be effected by the master's care and diligence in teaching, a small neighbourhood has thus frequently enjoyed the advantage of its grammar-school, which otherwise would have been lost.
Endowments for education are probably nearly as old as endowments for the support of the church. Before the Reformation there were schools connected with many religious foundations, and there were also many private endowments for education. Perhaps ono of the oldest schools of which anything is known is the school of Canterbury. Theodore, who was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in 66S (ac cording to some authorities), founded a school or college by licence from the pope. This school certainly existed for a bug time ; and there is a record of a suit before the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1321, between the rector of the grammar-schools of the city (supposed to be Theodore's school or its representative) and the rector of St. Martin's, who kept a school in right of the church. The object of the suit was to limit the rector of St. Martin's in the number of his scholars. This school probably existed till the Reformation, at least this is the time when the present King's echool at Canterbury was established by Henry VIII., and probably on the ruins of the old school. Before the Reformation schools were also connected with chantries, and it was the duty of the priest to teach the children grammar and singing. There are still various indications of this con nection between schools and religious foundations in the fact that some schools are still, or were till lately, kept in the church, or in a building which was part of it. There are many schools still in existence which were founded before the Reformation, hut a very great number were founded immediately after that event, and one professed object of king Edward VI. in dissolving the chantries and other religious founda tions then existing was for the purpose of establishing grammar schools, as appears from the recital of the act for that purpose (1 Ed. VI. c. 14.) [Cnatirar.) Though the act was much abused, the king did found a considerable number of schools, now commonly called King Edward's Schools, out of tithes that formerly belonged to religious houses or chantry lands; and many of these schools, owing to the improved value of their pro perty, arc now among the richest foundations of the kind in England. In these, as in many other grammar-schools, a certain number of per sons were incorporated as trustees and governors, and provision was made for a master and usher. At that time the endowments varied in annual value from twenty to thirty and forty pounds per annum.