South Kensington, a "List of
Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition." He says: "Not only are there many
editions of the Latin Vulgate long anterior to that time (1507 A.D.),
but there were actually nine _German_ editions of the Bible in the
Caxton exhibition earlier than 1483, the year of Luther's birth, and at
least three more before the end of the century." The general use of the
printing press about this time made popular translations opportune, as
it placed the Bible within the reach of all. It thus became a powerful
instrument for universal education.

[55] This was because the pastor had an oversight of the school, a
practice still very common in Germany.

CHAPTER XXIX

OTHER PROTESTANT EDUCATORS

The educational work of Luther and Melanchthon bore remarkable fruit.
Luther had urged parents to see to it that their children should be
educated, and had appealed to magistrates to assist the Church in
maintaining schools. He insisted upon compulsory education in the
memorable words, "The authorities are bound to compel their subjects to
send their children to school." As a result schools were organized in
Nuremberg, Frankfort, Ilfeld, Strasburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzic, and
many other places. Eton, Rugby, Harrow, and other educational
institutions were founded about this time in England.

Melanchthon's course of study (Schulplan) for Saxony had appeared in
1528, and in 1558 the school law of Wuertemberg, by far the best yet
enacted, went into force. Other German provinces adopted more or less
efficient school systems, and for the first time in the history of
Christian education, the duty of the State to assume the responsibility
of the education of its subjects was recognized. Out of these primitive
systems have grown the completer systems of the present, after more than
three centuries of experiment, study, and struggle.

The Reformation taught the right of every person to an education,
primarily, it is true, for religious ends, and it gradually came to be
understood that the State must assume that duty. For the Church had
neither the means nor the power to accomplish universal education. But
it was not till the nineteenth century that this end was reached,
whereby the advantages of education were offered to the child of every
parent of whatever rank or station, and the State assumed full control
of the schools.

This was the great work marked out by Luther and Melanchthon, and their
pupils and disciples c