ABSTRACT
"The young should live in a wholesome climate and drink in good from every quarter, so that like a wind brings health from healthy lands, some influence from noble works may from childhood upwards fall on ear and eye." The direct participation of the church in the enterprise of education has both an historical and a philosophical foundation. In Sweden marriage long remained difficult except for confirmed members of the Lutheran Church. The churches and the more charitable of their adherents continued to control the schools and there seemed no compelling reason to deprive them of their property or to take away from them responsibilities which no one else was particularly anxious to assume. Roman Catholics however continued to argue strongly that education is the business of the church and of the family, institutions which are prior to the state and inviolable, and that the religious spirit must permeate instruction in all subjects.
