granted; usually by the civil authorities,' at other times by the classis or the consistory, occasionally in the country districts by the pastor alone,3 and finally at times by the joint action of church and state. The license carried with it permission to hang out a card before the door of the schoolroom, naming the subjects in which the master was proficient and for which he had been licensed. In some places, in order to prevent fraud, it was legally required that such cards be hung out, written by the master's own hand. Such a placard was sometimes called a sample card (monster kaart), and frequently contained specimens of handwriting odd to us of these days. Thus, on a schoolmaster's card at Rotterdam was a picture of the whale with Jonah but recently cast forth, and underneath the words:

"As soon as Jonah was cast forth by the whale, he went to Nineveh to preach and to teach.

"Here we teach children the prayers, the questions by heart, and we go out catechizing."

6

The election and appointment of teachers varied greatly. The more important Latin schools were under the immediate control of the city burgomasters, and appointment seems to have been made directly by them without reference to the church, except that generally the requirement of creed subscription was enforced. The elementary schools might be so managed, but on the whole the church authorities had more voice in appointments to lower schools. The synods sought indeed to secure to the consistories the legal right of joint action with the magistracy on all appointments, but in this they were never entirely successful.

9

The remuneration of the teachers was partly by stipulated salary, partly by approved school fees, and oftentimes by sundry extras, as entrance (matriculation) fees, stipulated presents, and free lodging. A Nijkerk contract of 1619 illustrates all of these. There were two masters, one Dutch and one Latin. Each should receive “a yearly

1 Holland and W. Friesland, 1581 (Buddingh, op. cit., 12), 1591 (ibid., p. 7), Utrecht, 1586 (ibid., p. 34), 1613 (ibid., p. 40), etc.

2 Zeeland, 1583 (Buddingh, op. cit., p. 8).

3 Acta van part. Syn. van Zuid-Holland, iii, 479.

Leicester's school order, 1586 (Rutgers, op. cit., p. 640).

Buddingh, op. cit., p. 85 (Utrecht city, 1631); ibid., p. 75 (Utrecht country schools, 1654); Schotel, op. cit., p. 76.

6 Schotel, op. cit., p. 76.

Van Flensburg, op. cit., vii, 366 ff; Enschedé, op. cit., i, 166.

8 Brandt, op. cit., iii, 321-2; iv, 98, 138, 158.

9 Thus in the particular Synod of North Holland in 1604, the question was asked "whether or not it be not desirable, even necessary, that the schoolmasters, as well in the cities as in the villages, should henceforth be named with the consent of the churches." To which the synod made reply: "Yes, by all means, and it were to be desired that this might be consummated. The churches, however, shall in particular use all diligence to secure this consent as far as possible." (Rietsma, and Van Veen, Acta der provinciale synode gehouden in de Noordelijke Nederlanden, i, 353.) The Synod of South Holland in 1622 similarly answered: "It is the opinion of the synod that the appointment and dismissal of teachers cannot take place without the advice of the consistory." (Acta, etc., i, 57.)

1

salary of two hundred gulden to begin with, as well as free lodgings and as much peat as their predecessors had." Besides, were the regular tuition fees: Three stivers a quarter for Dutch reading; five stivers for reading and writing; Latin pupils, six stivers. In addition was a matriculation fee of "two blanken." And in addition to all the foregoing, "as a special encouragement, both schoolmasters shall receive at Christmas two stivers from each child and two stivers on St. John's day in the summer, and nothing more." The salaries of masters came sometimes from the town treasury, and sometimes from church funds which had (apparently) been sequestered from the church orders at the Reformation. It was common for the school ordinances to regulate the tuition fees. Thus the schoolmaster in the Utrecht country schools (1654) should "receive monthly or weekly from each child a certain sum as much as had been fixed by the scholarchs with the approval of the magistrates or of a court of justice." The master could enforce his claim by proper appeal. "Poor children who asked for free tuition shall all be taught for nothing." If there were too many the scholarchs or consistory should arrange a "compensation payable out of the deacons' fund." 3

At that period-as well as since the question as to the sufficiency of the schoolmaster's remuneration was an insistent one. The most common expedient then to bring the teaching income up to a living wage was for the master to engage in various side occupations. Valckoogh mentions a long list of possible occupations, ludicrously compounded of all sorts of odds and ends. "The schoolmaster was allowed to be a notary, a tax collector, a secretary; he might compute the taxes, cut hair, cure wounds, act as glazier (glazemaken), make balls (to play with) and coffins, cut stone, stain and varnish chairs, mend shoes, make wooden shoes, prepare all mourning articles, hoe gardens, bind books, knit nets, keep a few cows, fatten oxen, earn a stiver by sewing, carve wood, write books, compose love lettersbut-before school time." We probably can gather from this a fairly accurate idea of the various occupations that were followed in connection with schoolkeeping. Certain activities, however, were specifically forbidden. The Classis of Nijmegen forbade its schoolmasters to keep inns or tap houses, either to farm or collect the excise, and even to write legal papers in public tap houses. If the schoolmaster lived in the church steeple, he might not keep a retail store. In Holland there was found a combination of offices after

4

1 Beernink, Het onderwijs te Nijkerk (Bijdragen en Mededeelingen der Vereeniging "Gelre," deel X, 113 ff.).

2 Enschede, op. cit., i, 166; Beernink, op. cit., p. 116; Acta der part. Syn. van Zuid-Holland, i, 310; ibid., iii, 417.

3 Buddingh, op. cit., p. 74. The scholarchs here mentioned were practically a school board composed, jointly of members of the magistracy and of the consistory. Ibid., p. 75.

Douma, op. cit., p. 75.

Kist and Royaard, op. cit., iv, 31.

wards usual in America, those of voorlezer, voorsanger, and sexton.1 These were commonly combined to make up the office of parish schoolmaster. Valckoogh's list is rather of the side occupations of private masters.

The masters needed supervising in various ways. Some sought to turn over a part of their work to incompetent assistants. Accordingly the Zeeland regulations of 1583 specify that the masters “shall be required themselves to hear and examine and correct all the lessons and the compositions of the children; and not by an assistant master, nor one child by another; unless the assistant masters have been found capable by the aforesaid classis; or the pupils by way of preparation recite their lessons to each other in order to learn, or that having recited them to the master they repeat them to the assistant master or to the other children in order to retain them the better."2 In this connection, Valckoogh speaks as if the younger pupils regularly recited to the older ones. There is some indication of a system of quasi apprenticeship in connection with assistant teachers. In the larger Latin schools there are of course a number of subordinate teachers. The duties of the subordinate teachers (lectores) in the St. Jerome school at Utrecht were set out in most precise schedules.5

6

The records abound in references to school mistresses. These had to be licensed in the same manner as the men. They had likewise to sign the confession of faith. Schotel in discussing these schooldames says that they taught in great numbers in the slums, and that frequently they were unable to write, having to sign the confession with the cross mark.8 No evidence has been found that the schooldames kept other than private schools.

The school calendar is not easily settled. Speaking generally, the schools were supposed to continue the year round. No one of the general school regulations studied even refers to a vacation. The University of West Friesland in 1601 had six vacations, aggregating nearly three months, but there is no good reason to conclude from this as to the practice of the lower schools. The weekly holidays varied. Valckoogh considered a half holiday on Thursday as sufficient.10 In 1640 St. Jerome, at Utrecht, changed from three half holidays to two, Monday after 2 o'clock and Thursday after

1 Douma, op. cit., pp. 91-92.

2 Buddingh, op. cit., p. 10. A similar regulation was found at Leiden in 1658. Ibid., p. 145.

3 Douma, op. cit., p. 69.

Ibid., pp. 85-6.

5 Van Flensburg, op cit., vii 372–376 (1640), 382–385 (1643-1665).

6 Leicester's School order 1586 (Rutgers, op. cit., p. 640); Utrecht, 1613 (Buddingh, op. cit., p. 40).

7 Brandt, op. cit., iv., 158.

8 Op. cit., p. 86.

Eight days in the beginning of May, four weeks "kers vacantie," two weeks at Easter, two weeks at Pinkster (Whitsuntide), six weeks in summer, and eight days at "kermes vacantie" in October. W. B. S. Boeles, Frieslands Hoogeschool, etc., i, 351.

10 Douma, op. cit., p. 71.

noon. The Utrecht country school regulations (1654) say two weekly half holidays on such days as the scholarchs may determine and no attention to be paid to Shrove Tuesday or kermises.2 The usual custom, however, seems to have been half holidays on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The church holidays, which may be supposed to have been also school holidays, were Christmas, Easter, and Pinkster, "with the day following each," and sometimes "the day of the circumcision (New Year's day) and of the Christ's ascension.". To these may be added, as school holidays, St. Nicholas day (Dec. 6) and generally the kermis.

5

The school buildings of the period seem on the whole not to have received much attention. In the cities, as with us, special buildings were set aside for the public schools; elsewhere the schools were generally held in the dwellings of the masters, which were near the parish church. Nor was the interior of the schoolroom any more considered. Light and ventilation were all too frequently ignored. In summer the rooms were too often intolerably hot. In winter, peat and candles furnished a scant supply of heat and light. The room itself (apart from the contents of the master's desk) would seem to us quite bare, accustomed as we are to modern schoolrooms. The furniture consisted of nothing more than a chair and desk for the master, and for the pupils bare benches, sometimes with backs, but quite often without. In the Latin schools might be found also a blackboard and shelves for books. The parish schoolmaster of the villages, who might be notary besides, would need a varied stock of supplies, according to Douma (following Valckoogh): "A good handt placke (paddle for striking the open hand of the naughty pupil), and a strong roe (fabricated whip) made of willow branches, a sharp penknife, a sandbox (for blotting), a writing desk which could be locked, containing pens, a seal, green wax, an ink pot, a bundle of goose quills, a glass full of black ink, a blue tile on which to mix ink, small and large bowls for inks of various colors, parchments, three or four books of white paper, an ink horn to hang by his side when he went out, a brass candlestick with two lights, notes from which to teach letter writing, an arithmetic board on which to lay the counters, a rule, a roll book for the names of the pupils, three or four little books, a Bible, a prayer book, a psalm book, a Testament, a reading desk for the Bible, and an oil can or lantern for the clock work." There is no reason to doubt that much of this description would apply as well to the schoolmaster's outfit in New Netherland.

1 Van Flensburg, op. cit., vii, 372, 382.

2 Buddingh, op. cit., p. 72.

3 Douma, op. cit., p. 86; Beernink, op. cit., 114.

Eccl. Rec., 4224 (Article 67 of Synod of Dort church order).

Douma, op. cit., p. 40.

Ibid., p. 69. The roe was more frequently called roede. The handtplacke likewise often appears as placke, plake, or plak.

Of special interest for our subsequent discussion is the question of the education of girls. Of the general opportunity of the girls to attend the elementary schools there would seem to be no doubt. The Zeeland regulations of 1583 say that: "Furthermore, separate schools shall be kept for boys and girls, when this is feasible. Where this is not feasible, the said boys and daughters shall be separated as much as possible from each other, not only on benches, but also in all places in the schools and out."1 Douma, following Valckoogh, says of the latter part of the sixteenth century: "The pupils, girls and boys separated from one another, sit on low benches without backs. The girls sit in a corner all by themselves."? Douma further reproduces (p. 70) a picture ascribed by him to the beginning of the seventeenth century, in which the girls are evident by their distinctive dress, sitting furthest from the master. One of the best pictures we have of the interior of a Dutch school is that depicted on the gable stone of the orphan house at Enkhuisen, done in 1616, an excellent reproduction of which is found in Prof. P. L. Muller's Onze Goude Eeuw (vol. 2, p. 368). In this the dress of the little girls is as distinctive as any photograph of present-day conditions could show. In the school regulations of Nijkerk in 1627 there were three masters-one Dutch, one Latin, and one for the girls. Each master, it appears, taught separately from the others. In the Utrecht rural school regulations (1654), already several times referred to, the eleventh item states that "the boys over ten years of age shall sit separately from the girls, and the oldest shall sit next to the schoolmaster. Douma quotes (verbatim) a school regulation of the seventeenth century that "Schoolmasters instructing both girls and boys in the same school must have sufficient space so that they may be separated from one another and that they may be taught separately." Gilderland (1681) has a similar regulation to which it adds: "If boys are taken to board, no girls shall be received with them in the house above nine or ten years of age; and likewise, if girls are taken to board, no boys shall be received with them above twelve or thirteen years old, on pain of six guldens to be paid by the schoolmaster for each child." While Holland, in common with the rest of the seventeenth century world, excluded girls from all public higher learning, the references given show amply that girls were ad

1 Buddingh, op. cit., p. 9.

Op. cit., p. 69. In Schotel, op. cit., p. 80, we find Mr. Valckoogh's verses:

"De meyskens sullen sitten op een hoek alleen

En de knechtkens sullen ook sitten by een."

The girls shall sit in a corner alone

The boys shall also keep together.

Beernink, op. cit., p. 116.

Buddingh, op. cit., p. 71.

Douma, op. cit., p. 87.

Buddingh, op. cit., p. 81.