as not seriously impaired by its amalgamation with
the Church of Rome. It survived in active force, and before the foundation
of any of the existing public schools of England (the oldest of which is
Winchester, founded in 1387), we find the charge of the schools of
Roxburghshire intrusted in 1241 to the monks of Kelso, over whom was an
official called 'The Rector of the Schools.'"[132]

But for a considerable period prior to the Reformation, the interest of
the Roman Catholic Church in education, as well as in regard to the moral
and spiritual well-being of the people, had become enfeebled. The
monasteries had ceased to be, what they were in earlier times, centres of
gracious intellectual and spiritual influence. And nowhere was this more
conspicuously the case than on the Borders. The lawlessness of the clans
reacted on the life of the Church, and instead of the Church overcoming
the malign and disintegrating influences by which it was assailed, it was
unhappily overcome by them. Education in all its branches was shamefully
neglected. The most eminent barons in the land were often unable even to
write their own names. When they were under the necessity of adhibiting
their signatures to deed or charter, the pen had to be guided by the hand
of the notary. In these circumstances it is not difficult to imagine how
densely ignorant the great body of the people must have been.

Whatever may be said for or against the Reformation, there will be a
general consensus of opinion, among educationists especially, that the
scheme propounded by John Knox for the education of the people is in many
respects an ideal one. It is thus outlined in the Book of Discipline:--"Of
necessitie therefore we judge it, that every several kirk have one
schoolmaister appointed, such a one at least as is able to teach grammar
and the Latin tongue, if the town be of any reputation. If it be upland
where the people convene to the doctrine but once in the week, then must
either the reader or the minister there appointed take care of the
children and youth of the parish, to instruct them in the first
rudiments, especially in the Catechism [Calvin's Catechism] as we have it
now translated in the Book of Common Order, called the Order of Geneva.
And furder, we think it expedient, that in every notable town, and
specially in the town of the superintendent, there be erected a Colledge,
in which the arts, at least logick and rhetorick, together with the
tongues