ABSTRACT
In the history of education in the sixteenth century, the theory of education is already boldly put forward, and is in advance of its age but from the sixteenth century education is in possession of its essential principles. The men of the sixteenth century having renewed with classical antiquity an intercourse that had been too long interrupted, it was natural that they should propose to the young the study of the Greeks and the Romans. The scholars of the Renaissance included women from all participation in the literary treasures that a recovered antiquity had disclosed to themselves. Hygiene and gymnastics, cleanliness which protects the body, and exercise which strengthens it, these two essential parts of physical education receive equal attention from Rabelais. The dominant characteristic of education during the Renaissance period is the reaction which it exhibits against certain errors in Middle Age education. Erasmus is one of the first educators who comprehended the importance of politeness.
