The

Scottish Historical Review

VOL. IX., No. 34

JANUARY 1912

The Old Schools and Universities in Scotland

I an history has been found to exercise

T would be an interesting problem to analyze the secret of the

on the minds of all thoughtful students. Much must be allowed to the violent political changes, which more frequently than in the history of other countries from time to time altered the whole course of Scottish development. The War of Independence, the Reformation, the Union with England,—each of these marks a definite turning-point involving catastrophic changes such as are rarely to be met in the more orderly development of the southern kingdom, and such changes as these can never occur without producing men who, sharing the influence of two periods, must for all time present elements of mystery to the historian.

Nor is the fascination of the irreconcilable to be found merely in the characters of the men who have played an outstanding part in the history of our country. The student of Scottish history, in any of its aspects, is constantly being confronted by apparent contradictions of the most violent kind. That Scotland should be liberal in politics and intolerant in religion was the paradox which attracted the vigorous mind of Buckle: that Scotland should be liberal in politics and conservative in its instincts has in recent

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Essay awarded the One Hundred Guineas Prize offered by Dr. J. P. Steele of Florence in connection with the Celebration of the Five Hundredth Anniversary of the Foundation of St. Andrews University. The competition was open to all graduates of Scottish Universities, and the subject of the essay was described as Scotland's Debt of Gratitude to her Parish Schools, her Grammar Schools, and her Universities.

times repeatedly figured in the columns of the daily press as a paradox worthy of consideration. Yet there is an even more curious contradiction which has been noted by most careful observers. Scarcely any country in Europe presents so continuous a history of extreme poverty as Scotland. This is, perhaps, the most outstanding feature in Scottish economic history from earliest times, through a long troubled history when devastation was a necessary accompaniment of incessant warfare, until the end of the eighteenth century, when Fletcher of Saltoun estimated that a fifth of the population lived in a state of beggary. The records of the various burghs and of the Privy Council reveal to us a country in which starvation was not merely the occasional result of a bad harvest or the consequences of war, but the normal condition of affairs. For long periods hunger was the daily companion of the greater part of the population, and the country at large was terrorized by the troops of beggars who wandered about seeking to extort by fear what they could not obtain by compassion.

Yet this country, so signally deficient in the necessaries of life, was the country which has had the clearest conception of the value of education and the importance of learning. The remarkable Act of 1496, whatever view may be taken of the objects of its provisions, was at least in intention a compulsory education Act, and shows that in educational matters the Parliament of Scotland was centuries in advance of the legislators of other countries. The great scheme of education drawn up in the Book of Discipline, though never carried into effect, represented the common ideals of both the religious parties which divided the Scottish nation at the time of the Reformation. These ideals, involving the establishment of a school in every parish, were never lost sight of, and the Act of 1696, which secured this end, gave Scotland an educational system which made her peasantry the best informed in Europe. That these lofty ideals should have been entertained in material circumstances so sordid and so depressing is one of the most remarkable facts in Scottish history, and one of the most creditable to the Scottish people. I know not,' wrote Dr. Johnson, who was never too favourable a critic of matters relating to Scotland,-'I know not whether it be not peculiar to the Scots to have attained the liberal without the manual arts, to have excelled in ornamental knowledge and to have wanted not only the elegancies but the conveniencies of common life.'

It is in the common schools of a country that the ordinary

citizens are equipped for the battle of life: it is in the higher schools and colleges that the future leaders of a nation receive the training which qualifies them for their position of trust and responsibility. To comment on the important part played by the educational system in the formation of national character would, therefore, be to insist on the obvious. Yet what would otherwise be a platitude ceases to be so in the case of Scotland when considered in the light of the peculiarity noted by Dr. Johnson. Had Scotland until the middle of the eighteenth century been without learning and without any educational system worthy of the name, the fact would not have appeared remarkable. The historian could have pointed in extenuation to the insecurity caused by incessant warfare within and without the kingdom, and to the poverty which might reasonably have been expected to extinguish all love of knowledge and all lofty ideals of education. Yet, in point of fact, in this, one of the most important departments of national life, Scotland, instead of being backward, has been immeasurably in advance of other nations. In a country placed in circumstances so unfavourable, the development of an efficient educational system must have demanded on the part of the nation at large a much greater sacrifice than was necessary elsewhere. In the minds of Scotsmen education must have been more prominent, and learning must have been more appreciated for its own sake. Great, then, as has been the influence on other countries of their educational systems, it is only to be expected that in the case of Scotland, the influence of her schools and colleges has been even greater, and that our country to-day is under a deeper debt of gratitude to her scholastic institutions than other countries are.

It is not the object of this paper to trace in any detail the history of the schools and universities of Scotland or to give a connected account of the various Acts of Parliament or of the Privy Council establishing or extending the scope of her educational system. It may, however, be convenient at this stage to consider as briefly as possible the nature of the Scottish educational system as it existed from earliest times, before showing in what way the leading features of that system have left their mark on the Scottish nation.

Briefly speaking, the educational institutions of Scotland may be divided into three classes: the parish schools, the grammar schools, and the universities. Historically, the system in its main features can be traced to the period of the domination of

the Roman Catholic Church, to which in educational matters Scotland owes much. The origin of the parish schools is a matter of some obscurity, but it is clear that from a very early time the parish priests either acted as schoolmasters in their parishes, or else, in certain cases, supervised a younger ecclesiastic to whom these duties were assigned. Such parish schools, it is unnecessary to say, did not exist everywhere, yet it is certain that before the Reformation they existed in considerable numbers throughout the country.

The scheme of educational reform associated with the name of Knox, which is to be found in the Book of Discipline, did not then, in proposing the establishment of a school in each parish, break with the traditions of the past; it merely sought to render more perfect a system already in existence. Adverse circumstances, however, proved too strong for the Reformers, and the realization of this part of their dreams was left to a later generation. By the Act of the Privy Council of 1633, and more definitely by the Act of Parliament of 1696, it was finally enacted that a school should be established in each parish. This lastmentioned Act completed a long process of development, and although it was not possible in every parish to give effect to its provisions, yet in general, as a result of this measure, parish schools did exist throughout the country and brought within the reach of all the possibility of an elementary education.

The grammar schools are also in their origin the offspring of the Roman Catholic Church. It was customary in the various cathedrals and abbeys to have schools intended in the first place for the training of boys and young men for the offices of the Church. These were naturally situated in towns of considerable size and importance, and as they offered advantages in education. superior to what could be obtained elsewhere, it was, perhaps, inevitable that the sons of townsmen should in time be admitted as outside pupils. Through the growth of this element, the municipal authority gradually acquired a certain measure of control over these schools, and in the earlier history of these institutions there are numerous cases of disputed authority between the ecclesiastical and the secular powers. In the upheaval attending the Reformation, these cathedral and abbey schools, as well as the collegiate schools, which also had originally depended on the great ecclesiastical houses, naturally passed under the control of the various town councils. These bodies, in their new capacity as patrons of learning, showed themselves in all

cases zealous on behalf of the schools which had passed under their charge, and in very many burghs where there was no school with the ecclesiastical origin indicated, the town council at a later date took steps to establish academies or seminaries.

To the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, or at least of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, is also to be attributed the foundation of three of the four Scottish universities. The large numbers of Scottish students at Oxford, and the more celebrated continental universities, proved at an early date that the establishment of a university in Scotland was urgently required. The foundation of St. Andrews, the first of the three Catholic universities, was effected in 1411-12 by Bishop Wardlaw, and was intended to provide Scottish students with the advantages of a higher education in their own country. In 1450 the University of Glasgow was founded, through the efforts of Bishop Turnbull, on the model of the University of Bologna, and in 1494 Bishop Elphinstone succeeded in obtaining a bull for the establishment of a university in Aberdeen, expressly founded for the purpose of humanizing the highlands where rude men, ignorant of letters were still to be found.' The University of Edinburgh alone, established after the Reformation, has a different and more humble origin. Founded in 1583 by the town council, it was for many years merely the town's college,' and only acquired the rank of a university as the result of a vague process of expansion and development. With four universities, Scotland was amply furnished with the means of providing a higher education, indeed, it may reasonably be held that a country with so small a population as Scotland could not well maintain so many. Yet no one who has considered the part played by the Scottish universities will regret that they have been so numerous. If, perhaps, from the point of view of the universities themselves, the fact is to be deplored, the relatively large number of universities in Scotland has, nevertheless, produced effects, to be noted later, which have indubitably been for the advantage of the nation.

What then does Scotland owe to these various parts in her educational system? The first and most obvious test of efficiency is to enquire how far the educational system of Scotland has achieved the end for which schools and colleges are ostensibly founded, in other words, how far has it been successful in promoting learning, and in keeping alive in our country the true spirit of culture and of scholarship? It is impossible in a few