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interest in schools. As early as 1522 is found a payment by the municicipal authorities to the "rector scolarium" on account of a chorus.1 In 1567 the city paid an item of 4 pounds for "the benches for the school children in Jesus School." Some years later a similar appropriation was made for the free instruction of poor young children.3 In 1576 it was resolved by the city thenceforth to maintain the St. Jerome School "with adequate salaries." Numerous records of instructions issued in the seventeenth century to rectors and masters of this school give a very good account of the inner working of the Latin school among the Dutch of that period. A church order for the whole Province of Utrecht was issued in 1590 and another in 1612. In the latter were included directions for schools, schoolmasters, and sextons. Schools of four kinds were recognized, public or trivial,® parochial, private, and schools for the country districts. The selection of instructors, the fixing of curricula, and the general supervision were given to municipal authorities, with varying degrees of participation in control granted to the church. In 1644 the city of Utrecht adopted a detailed plan for the free instruction of the poor by apportioning them among its four parochial schools. The country schools of the Province were regulated separately in an order of 18 sections issued in 1654, one of the best available accounts of Dutch school management of the seventeenth century. In matters of education, there is no reason to suppose that Utrecht was in advance of other Provinces of the United Netherlands. Before the Reformation public schools were found in individual cities. Beginning about 1580 the Provinces took up the work, making general regulations for the control of schools everywhere. By the middle of the seventeenth century the whole country-rural districts as well as cities and towns-appears to have been well provided with schools of various grades, controlled and often also supported by the public secular authorities.

The relation of church and state in the control of these schools was a matter of considerable concern to the interests involved. On the one hand was a vigorous minority of Calvinists who wished to use the governmental machinery to enforce their ideas of church doctrine and policy. On the other was a larger body of people, Roman Catholics, Arminians, Mennonists, and men of relatively independent

1 Van Flensburg, Archief voor kerkelijke en wereldsche geschiedenis * The school (St. Jerome) had at the date named apparently been long established. 2 Op. cit., p. 240.

* Ibid., p. 246.

Ibid., vii, 392.

Ibid., pp. 366 ff.

van Utrecht, iii, 183.

A trivial school was originally a Latin school teaching the trivium. See p. 96 ff.

7 Buddingh, op. cit., pp. 36 ff.

8 Ibid., pp. 91-3. The ordinance was promulgated by the city authorities without (specific) reference to ecclesiastical sanction.

Ibid., pp. 69-76.

religious ideas, who agreed among themselves only in resisting the encroachments of the Calvinists. So aggressive, however, was the strict Calvinistic party that it dominated the church almost completely, and, through that, exerted an influence on legislation out of proportion to the relative number of its adherents. In this contest, the school was one of the strategic points. The party which could fix the curriculum, select the textbooks, and certificate the teachers, all to suit its ideas, would eventually carry the day; for practically every child in the provinces went to school. The Calvinistic party saw this point with clearness, and moved toward it with a precision admirable in its effectiveness. At this time it was a part of the common law of the Netherlands-if we may use an English term and theory-that, with regard to schools of whatever grade, the local magistracy should appoint the masters and give instructions as to books and curriculum. The strict church party accordingly sought through church orders, promulgated by cities and Provinces, to have by statute law the power granted to church officials of certificating teachers and advising with the magistracy in the control of schools. The fact that Roman Catholics were suspected of favoring Spain aided the Calvinists in securing such legislation. Thus in the Province of Zeeland, where the Calvinists were early in power, there was issued by 1583 a kerkenordnung which gave larger power over the schools into the hands of the church. "No one henceforth in the lands of Zeeland," so reads this ordinance, "in the towns, as well as in the country districts, shall be accepted for the school service, nor shall any already in service be allowed to continue, except those who shall have been judged thereto fit and capable by the classis of each island of Zeeland, respectively, where the same resides or will reside, having been beforehand examined in life and doctrine. * * * These and no others may be accepted or retained by the magistrates.''? And it was further enacted that "the aforesaid schoolmasters shall not be allowed to teach other books than those judged to be fit and suitable for the youth by the classis, as well in the little children's schools as in the Latin schools for the advanced pupils.'' To the same effect, the Earl of Leicester, representing Queen Elizabeth in the control of Dutch affairs, issued in 1586 an order intended to be binding throughout the United Netherlands, in which the consistory or classis was to certificate all schoolmasters, after an examination "first as to purity of walk and then in knowledge and godliness of life." All schoolmasters must first "subscribe to the confession of the Netherlandish church." For the management of Latin ("particu

1 It is not generally known that as late as 1584 a majority of the people, except in Zeeland, were Roman Catholics. (Blok, History of the People of the Netherlands, iii, 190.); while even in 1640 nearly one-third of the total population were still adherents of this faith. (Ibid., iv, 124.)

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lar") schools, there should be chosen each year "certain curators from the magistracy and the consistory ""so that the success of these (schools) may be assured." It was to secure the enforcement of such regulations that the Great Synod of Dort (1618-19), the climax of Calvinistic power, made it "the duty of the ministers, with an elder, and if necessary, with a magistrate to visit all the schools, private as well as public"; and to the same end, placed a somewhat similar obligation upon the classis to inspect the churches and schools within its territory.2

The party in opposition to the Calvinists was able to thwart in some considerable measure these efforts of the strict church people. In the first place, the edicts of church synods by no means controlled the action of the civil authority. On the contrary, approval by the government of a Province was necessary to give to the synodic acts the force of law in that Province. We accordingly find the States General of Holland giving only a "provisional and limited approval" to the kerkenordnung of the synod of The Hague (1586),3 especially as pertained to the choosing and installing of ministers and schoolmasters. The same Province later took similar action with regard to edicts of the Great Synod of Dort (1618-19), and not only specifically declared that "no acts, or decrees, of a synod should be of force to bind any person, without a previous approbation by states;" but even adopted amendments to the twenty-first and forty-fourth articles of church order whereby the right of appointing schoolmasters was specifically reserved to the civil authorities. Actual school orders of the period show the same disposition to keep control in secular hands. The school order of the Province of Utrecht in 1590 provided that "so far as concerns the schools, they shall stand at the disposal and order of the magistracy in each city." Elsewhere in the document the reformed religion was distinctly recognized, but nowhere in it were the church officials given any power whatsoever in the management of schools. In another school order of the same Province, that of 1612, it was arranged that rectors of the city trivial schools should be appointed and installed by the magistrates, who were also to give instructions, "with the advice of the deputies of the synod." There seemed, however, no legal way of enforcing the "advice." Similarly, "the parochial schoolmasters in the city and towns, together with the voorlezers and sextons," were to be appointed "by the respective magistrates with the advice of the consistory." "Books and authors" were to be prescribed by the respective magistrates, but must be such as would not "turn the youth away from the Christian reformed religion. Still further, even when the laws

1 Rutgers, op. cit., p. 638 ff.

2 Dunshee, op. cit., p. 4; Eccl. Rec., p. 4222.
Rutgers, op. cit., p. 625.

Brandt, op. cit., iv, 163, 165.

5 Buddingh. op. cit., p. 35.

Ibid., p. 36 ff.

allowed the church a certain control, the local civil authorities exercised a broad discretion in their enforcement of such laws. Thus the particular Synod of South Holland was informed in 1624 that the rector of a Latin school at Gouda had published a school program in which optional catechism was advertised, and the substitution of a lesson in Cato's Distichs was allowed in place of attendance upon the regular Sunday church service. The synod strongly disapproved of this advertisement and tried for six years to have the laws forbidding such executed; but in vain. The magistrates agreed in theory with the synod, but would not reduce the rector to obedience; and in this status the affair finally rested. In 1628 Lutheran and Catholic masters in the same school declined to subscribe to the creed, but after being dismissed according to law, they were brought back by the magistrates. In like manner, Catholic schools at Noordwyk and Culemberg troubled the synod for many years. Although the law required the creed subscription of all, nothing could be done to close these schools; the civil authorities would not act. In such ways did political expediency thwart religious zeal. The schools remained the joint concern of both church and state, with the state the dominant party.

This joint control, while differing in different times and places, seems on the whole to have been settled in such a way that in religious affairs the church had a determining voice, while in all other matters the secular authorities controlled. The division of influence would thus differ according to the kind of school. In the Latin schools of the city the church saw to it that the masters signed the creed, that the catechism was taught, that no bad books were used, and that the pupils attended the regular Sunday church service. But even here the minister and consistory could only use moral suasion; the enforcement of the laws lay finally with the secular body. As regards the parochial school, whose master was usually also voorlezer and voorsanger, the church had a larger share of influence. The master was seldom, if ever, chosen without at least the advice of the consistory.

In the control, however, of even the parochial schools the secular authorities might act without specific reference to the consistory. Thus the Utrecht act of 1644, adopted by the common council for the free instruction of the poor, prescribed how many such free pupils each parochial school should teach without even a suggestion that the churches had any voice in the decision. In conclusion, then, as to the relation of church and state in school affairs, the principal power of the church lay in the generally acknowledged right to examine as

1 Acta der Particuliere Synoden van Zuid-Holland (Knuttel), i, 114.

2 Ibid., pp. 141, 167, 205, 249, 292–3, 329.

3 Ibid., p. 281.

4 Ibid., ii, 369, 418; iii, 15-7, 51-2, 97, 114-5, 157, 219, 271, 280, 317, 336, 429, 534, 536.
Buddingh, op. cit., p. 91 ff.

to creed subscription,' to enforce which there had been devised the regular visitations of church and consistory for local supervision, and that of the deputies of the classes for a more general oversight. On the other hand, the strength of the secular side lay in the facts, first, that, most strictly speaking, the Reformed Church had never been officially established as the exclusive State church of the Netherlands," and, second, that not only did financial support come from the civic authorities, but legal ownership and control was vested in the Government. So that even parochial schools-nay, the churches themselves were public institutions under the ultimate control of the secular Government.

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Because of our primary interest in the schools of New Netherland, it is the parochial school of the Netherlands that interests us most. In the early seventeenth century one "Dirck Adriaensz Valckoogh, schoolmaster at Barsingerhorn," published "a fit and profitable little book called the Rule of the Dutch Schoolmasters." The book gives Valckoogh's own practice, and as such forms our best source for the period. "The ideal teacher," so says Mr. Valckoogh, “is a man who is gentle, true, of good family and of good reputation. He is a man who knows how to write a good hand and who is good at reading; who knows sol-fa-ing and who can sing the psalms from notes; who neither lisps nor speaks too low; who can write letters and requests; who understands the Scriptures so that he can educate the people; and who knows how to set a clock, how to manage, oil, and clean it." 4 No master could teach even in a private school before he had been granted a license. For this an examination was usually prerequisite, at least so far as to ascertain the religious and moral fitness of the candidate. Apparently none but elementary schoolmasters were examined as to scholarship. Letters of credential as to life and doctrine were of course passed upon by the appropriate appointing bodies. Subscription to the creed, made formally in a book kept publicly for that purpose, was common. Actual examination as to scholarship was frequently conducted by the local ministry, by the consistory, or by the classis. The license to teach was variously

1 This power the church authorities sought to render more secure by insisting that no one be allowed to to teach who was not at the same time a member of the church. Sometimes even the whole family must be members of the orthodox church. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over church membership would thus readily give increased leverage in school control. Brandt, op. cit., iv, 138; Nederl. Archief v. Kerkel. Gesch. (Kist en Royaards), iv, 30; Buddingh, op. cit., p. 70.

2 Blok, op. cit., iv, 276.

Alckmaer, 1607 (reprinted 1875). For selections, see Buddingh, op. cit., p. 104 ff. and Schotel Het Oud-Hollandsch Huisgezin der 17de Eeuw, p. 78 f.

4 This is an adaptation from Valckoogh given by Douma, Geschiedenis van het lager onderwijs in Nederland, p. 68.

Buddingh, op. cit., p. 12 (Holland and W. Friesland, 1581); ibid., p. 7 (ditto, 1591); ibid., p. 34 (Utrecht, 1586), etc.

• For example, the city of Haarlem has in its archives a register of such creed subscriptions covering the years 1628-1795.-Enschedé, op. cit., ii, 96.

7 Acta van part. Syn. van Zuid-Holland, iii, 479; Buddingh, op. cit., pp. 41, 77; Rutgers, op. cit., p. 640 (Leicester's school order, 1586).

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