ABSTRACT
Adaptation to local surroundings was characteristic of the provincial grammar schools, in spite of all attempts of the central authorities and ecclesiastical supervisors to secure uniformity in certain directions. The Statutes of the individual schools therefore show the greatest variety of intention and aim. The new part taken by laymen in the foundation of schools in the 15th century naturally led to diversity of educational ideas in the Statutes, and even in pre-Reformation times, laymen had charge of grammar schools. The differentiation of the profession of teaching from that of the clergy, has proceeded slowly, yet in the Orders of St Albans Grammar School, devised by Sir Nicholas Bacon in 1570, it was declared ‘that the schoolmaster shall have no other service or charge that might withdraw him from his duty as schoolmaster,’ and in 1574 ‘the Wardens and four Assistants of the Town and Parish of Sevenoaks,’ in whom was vested the government of the Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth at Sevenoaks, in Kent, by their Statutes required themselves ‘and their successors to choose for their master ‘one honest and mete man, sufficiently learned and expert in grammar, not being in Holy Orders, to teach grammar in the school.’ It is true, on the other hand, some of the school Statutes required that a ‘priest’ should be appointed. But it is clear that the transition stage towards teaching becoming a sufficient profession of itself had set in.
