ABSTRACT
The college founded at Sens in 1537 by a bequest from one Philip Hodoard, displays many of the features common to these municipal schools. The bequest provided for a purpose-built structure (still used in the 1970s), its legal incorporation (college), an overseer (proviseur), a board of trustees (mostly civil but including some clergy), and a specific staff structure (a principaVmaster and three teachers).10 The analysis of other schools adds to this picture. In most, tuition was free (or occasionally means-tested) to city residents, with substantial fees for outsiders who boarded with the principal and supplemented his salary. 11
Normally, the principal contracted personally with the city for the schooling and the recruiting and paying of the teachers. 12 He retained the non-resident fees and the city prohibited any potentially competitive
While this picture of a 'normal' municipal educational establishment is interesting, it begs one important question. Why did cities seek to provide such elaborate and expensive institutions? Apparently, there were a number of interconnected concerns. 15 First and foremost, while diocesan and monastic foundations provided some access to education, urban merchants had different educational goals. Ecclesiastical schooling was primarily designed to equip men for the clergy. Moreover, these schools were beyond magisterial control and were part of an educational network which took the town's children to distant universities and academies. Also, the merchants saw commercial value in educating their future heirs and appreciated the wider benefits for social order and stability by occupying children in schools. 16 This latter issue was of special concern as it limited youthful disorder and eventually promised to produce that most desirable of products, gens de bien, good citizens.
