The Northern Renaissance and Reformation
What is "the Reformation"? Given the spectacle presented by the sixteenth century, so much change-so much innovation and reshaping in church, state, the arts, literature, science and technology, commerce-so much exploration and colonization, one may understandably construe the Reformation as the sum total of dramatic socio-cultural movements occurring in sixteenth-century Europe and continuing into the seventeenth century. Conventional usage of the term "The Reformation" centers on Protestantism and religious reform, just as the term "Counter-Reformation" centers on Catholic church reform. Conventional usage, however, masks the scope of change in thought and action. It obscures, for example, the degree to which the Catholic church functioned as an international state; correspondingly, it obscures the ways and degrees to which the new churches were implicated in the rise of nation states. Nor does the view through the church window clearly reveal the integral importance of the printed word in vernacular languages-an importance that was at once religious, moral, political, aesthetic, scientific, technical, and economic. These several strains were confluent in bringing change to education, even though religious and moral interests were often most prominent in calls for more schools, more school attendance, and curriculum reform.

Observation

Europeans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries experienced a complex of changes-economic, political, technological, religious, scientific, aesthetic-which demanded a substantial increase in the pool of leadership capacity. That, in turn, required enlarged provisions for schooling and increased access to schools.
The fullest expression of the need to broaden formal educational opportunity came in calls for universal schooling. Medieval prejudices continuing through the Renaissance assumed the futility of universal schooling. Prejudice notwithstanding, convictions and trends moved in the direction of enlarged access. Enlarged access to schooling entailed increasing the number of schools and putting them near potential student populations. While potential student populations existed in towns and villages, finding a sufficient number of competent schoolmasters presented extraordinary challenges.

Among Protestant school reformers in German-speaking lands, Martin Luther and Philip Melancthon loom as giants. Luther denounced monastery schools, and called upon public officials to increase accessibility to schooling for all children. Schools would benefit both the individual and the state. Attendance should be compulsory, state supported, and state controlled.

Melancthon, Luther's confederate, possessed the executive and organizational skills necessary to implement school and university reforms along Lutheran lines. In 1528, he proposed a school plan for the state of Saxony. Following a modified version of this plan in 1559, the state of Würtemburg made provision for elementary vernacular schools in all its villages. (Official approval was achieved by 1565.) The schools were to teach reading, writing, religion, and church music.

Melancthon's principal emphasis was on institutions of secondary and higher education. Like Luther, his aim was to prepare leaders for offices in church and state. His influence was particularly strong in reforming the Latin schools in Eisleben, Magdeburg, and especially Nuremberg where he participated in organizing the classical school (gymnasium). A broad curriculum was planned, inflected with humanistic features, strong in Latin and Greek, but also attentive to history, science, and music.

Having already established his reputation as a university scholar (University of Wittenberg, 1524), Melancthon was consulted in the founding of the University of Marburg and the University of Königsberg. He was also asked to advise on the reorganization of the Universities of Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Leipzig.

Other notable figures in Protestant educational reform are Jean Calvin (Geneva, Switzerland), Ulrich Zwingli (Zürich, Switzerland), and John Knox (Scotland). In the annals of sixteenth-century Catholicism, one name in education stands out above all others, and that is Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order and its schools. Like Melancthon, the leaders of the Society of Jesus stressed schooling at the secondary and university levels.

England: state interest in organized provisions for education
The so-called Royal Injunctions of 1559 officially formulated a new level of state interest in provisions for the education of English citizens. The scope of the Injunctions was wide ranging, including specifications related to the aims of schooling, curriculum, character of schoolmasters, and means of financing student scholarships. Quoted below are sections from the Injunctions bearing most directly on education and schooling.

ROYAL INJUNCTIONS

Injunctions given by the Queen's Majesty, concerning both the clergy and laity of this realm, published A.D. 1559, being the first year of the reign of our Sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth.

The queen's most royal majesty, by the advice of her most honourable council, intending the advancement of the true honour of Almighty God, the suppression of superstition throughout all her highness's realms and dominions, and to plant true religion to the extirpation of all hypocrisie, enormities, and abuses (as to her duty appertaineth) doth minister unto her loving subjects these godly injunctions hereafter following.

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Xll. And, to the intent, that learned men may hereafter spring the more, for the execution of the premises, every parson, vicar, clerk, or beneficed man within this deanry having yearly to dispend in benefices and other promotions of the church £100, shall give £3. 6s. 8d. in exhibition to one scholar in either of the universities; and for as many £100 more as he may dispend, to so many scholars more shall give like exhibition in the University of Oxford or Cambridge, or some grammar-school, which, after they have profited in good learning, may be partners of their patrons cure and charge, as well in preaching, as otherwise in executing of their offices, or may, when time shall be, otherwise profit the commonweal with their counsel and wisdom.

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XXXIX. Item, that every schoolmaster and teacher shall teach the Grammar set forth by King Henry Vlll of noble memory, and continued in the time of King Edward Vl and none other.

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XL. Item, that no man shall take upon him to teach, but such as shall be allowed by the ordinary, and found meet as well for his learning and dexterity in teaching, as for sober and honest conversation, and also for right understanding of God's true religion.

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XLI. Item, that all teachers of children shall stir and move them to love and do reverence to God's true religion now truly set forth by public authority.

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XLII. Item, that they shall accustom their scholars reverently to learn such sentences of scripture, as shall be most expedient to induce them to all godliness.

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XLIII. Item, forasmuch as in these latter days many have been made priests, being children, and otherwise utterly unlearned, so that they could read ne say mattens or mass; the ordinaries shall not admit any such to any cure or spiritual function.

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England: rhetoric and education
The Renaissance in England produced developments in English rhetoric that continue to evoke the admiration of those who value imagination and style. Of writers ranked among the "great Elizabethans," none ranks higher than William Shakespeare, but many rank very high-poets, prose writers, dramatists. What explains the efflorescence of language in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England? The question is tempting but too ambitious for present purposes. It is beyond brief answer even when narrowed to ask only about the sort of education that contributed to the rich literary outcomes of the period. Still, some insight into the subject may result from glances in the direction of the grammar school curriculum.

Grammar schools, it must be recalled, concentrated on language cultivation. Not English, it was Latin grammar and rhetoric that occupied student attention. In the most prestigious of the grammar schools, those able to offer a fuller curriculum, students would go on to study Greek and possibly Hebrew and other biblical languages. Classical languages were not the only subjects in the curriculum, but they were foremost.

Once beyond the basics of grammar, study of the arts of speech and writing was in order-one might say the "fine arts" of language usage. Henry Peacham's The Garden of Eloquence (1577), said to represent "the theory of Renaissance stylistic rhetoric at its height," shows how closely the artistry of language might be examined. Peacham concentrates on "figures" of speech. A figure, he explains, "is a fashion of words, oration, or sentence, made new by art, turning from the common manner and custom of writing or speaking" (Bi). He divides figures into Tropes and Schemates, and then subdivides these classifications, continuing the analysis into nine subdivisions. Tropes, for example, divide into two kinds, those of words and those of sentences. The principal tropes of words alone are nine: metaphor, metonomy, synecdoche, antonomasia, onomatopeia, catacresis, metalepsis, antiphrasis, acirilogia. Peacham defines these tropes and offers multiple examples of each of them.

A closer look at a few passages from Peacham's text is instructive. First, the passages demonstrate the mode of analysis Peacham employs and the didactic function of examples. Second, several of the passages chosen indicate an understanding of the importance of visual imagery in rhetoric. Third, some of the passages reveal assumptions about education, the possibility of rising by means of education, the role of the schoolmaster, the profile of subjects considered essential to the studies of sixteenth-century persons who would be considered well educated.

(Note: In the passages quoted below, spelling is left as it was in the edition of 1577. Sixteenth-century orthography is inconstant, but twentieth-century readers will see that the uses of the letters "e," "i," "u," "v," and "y" constitute most of the departures from current practices.)

[The following accounts of Luther and Loyola were prepared by Byron Stevens, graduate assistant in Educational Policy and Administration during 1996-98. Sources used included Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia (3rd ed.)]

Luther
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German religious reformer. Luther was an Augustinian monk and a professor of Biblical exegesis at Wittenberg. There, in 1517, he posted his critique of the Roman Catholic Church's practices, the Ninety-Five Theses, which is generally considered the original document of the Protestant Reformation. From then on, Luther was the center of a widespread, and often violent, religious upheaval in Germany, where there was already strong sentiment against Rome, especially among the humanists.

Luther was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1521. He appeared before the civil authorities at the Diet of Worms, where he took a firm stand on his beliefs-principal among them, "justification by faith alone"-and he was banned by the Holy Roman Empire. The Elector of Saxony, however, gave him sanctuary and from this safe retreat Luther undertook his translation of the Bible into German.

Luther's reforms included education, beginning with his attack on monastery schools. He called upon officials to make schooling more accessible for all children. Because he believed that schools would benefit both the individual and the state, Luther advocated that school attendance be compulsory, state supported, and state controlled.
Luther's reform movement attracted the support and energies of Philip Melanchthon, a humanist and renowned professor of Greek, whose works on pedagogy earned him the name "praeceptor Germaniae" ("teacher of Germany"). Melanchthon was responsible for implementing school and university reforms along Lutheran lines. Like Luther, he believed the principal aim of institutions of secondary and university education was to prepare leaders for service to the church and state. His desire to reconcile Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, however, led to difficulties in his relationship with Luther.

Loyola
Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) was the founder of the Society of Jesus. Today, the Jesuits are the largest Roman Catholic religious order of men in the world. Loyola's Order, first projected in 1534 and recipient of papal approbation in 1540, grew as an almost direct response of the Catholic Church to the challenges of Protestantism. This response is known as the "Counter Reformation." Loyola is frequently depicted with the sacred monogram I.H.S. on his chest or contemplating it. His Exercitia (Spiritual Exercises, 1548), a manual of prayer and devotion, is considered a remarkable treatise on applied psychology as an inducement to mystic vision. Many Jesuits became leaders of the Counter Reformation and are renowned for their work in education. Like Melanchthon, the Society of Jesus stressed schooling at the secondary and university level. The Society established many such institutions with the stated aim of preparing talented young men for service and future leadership of society.

-Byron Stevens, 1998

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SELECTIVE LIST OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FIGURES IN EDUCATION

The growing interest in education that was part of Renaissance and Reformation movements resulted in an increasing number of individuals making their voices heard on the subject. An inspection of textbook indices can be daunting for the uninitiated-all those names! In addition to the Protestant and Catholic leaders noted above, the list below includes some of the best known figures active in sixteenth-century educational theory and practice.
 

• Aim of education: good man, informed and refined by study of classical literature
• Emphases:
                  Educational opportunity for middle class
                  Recognize individual differences and talents
                  Classical curriculum
                  Students to make commonplace books
                  Adages valuable
                  Lessons in dialogue form valuable

Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540, Sp., Valencia) Writer. Tutor of Princess Mary Tudor, 1523.

• On a Plan of Studies for Youth (1523), On the Instruction of a Christian Woman (1523), De Tradendis Disciplinis [On the Teaching of the Arts] (1531), Introductio ad Sapientiam (1524) [Introduction to Wisdom, Eng. trans. 1540] , De Anima [Concerning the Mind] (1538).
• Aim of education: a good and wise Christian
• Called a " second Quintilian" by contemporaries: turn knowledge to serve public good
• Relief for poor a civic and national duty (1526-27)
• An apostle of peace (1529), comparable to Erasmus
• Emphases:
                  Public schooling affirmed
                  Classical Greek and Roman authors (selectively), Christian authors,
                  some moderns (e.g., Erasmus, Politian)
                  Study Latin
                  Learn vernacular languages via conversation
                  Induction method advocate, a precursor of Francis Bacon
                  Study nature, observe, but with "torch of Christ"

France
François Rabelais (1483-1553, Fr.). Humanist. Degree in Medicine. Government service.
    Pantagruel (1532). Gargantua (1534). Intermittent collating, augmentation to 1547.

• Ribald humor
• Satirizes scholastic formalism
• Emphases: spontaneity, interest, experience
• Influence on Montaigne, Locke, Rousseau

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592, Fr. Dordogne). Landed gentleman. Mayor of Bordeaux.
            Essays (1580-88): Education of Children, Pedantry, Affection of Fathers to Their Children

• Differentiates information, knowledge, education
• Aim of education: cultivation of judgment and virtue
• Emphases:
                  Things before words, but words rather than math
                  Experience before book-learning
                  Literature a means to self-knowledge
                  Writing essential to self-knowledge
                  Action rather than speculative theorizing
                  Travel an important means of education

Peter Ramus (1515-1572, Pierre de la Ramée, Fr. ). Author of many texts. First professor of mathematics at the Royal College of France.

• Attacks Aristotelianism/Scholasticism as barren formalism
• Urges reform of school and university curriculum
• Proposes new method of organizing knowledge
• Use of schematic diagrams (i.e., visualizations) of divisions of knowledge
• Emphases:
                  Seek criteria of truth through intellect, not authority
                  Base education on nature
                  Systematic organization of knowledge
                  Practice and use

England
Roger Ascham (1515-1568, Eng.). Knight.

• The Schoolmaster (1571): outlines humanist education, discusses school discipline, advocates method of "double translation" for teaching Greek and Latin, opposes travel education for youth

Thomas Elyot (1490-1546, Eng.). Knight.

• The Boke Named the Governour (1531): First book on education in English endorsing humanist education for noblemen; describes education of rulers, emphasis on virtue and manners
• Translates Plutarch's "On the Education of Children" [from the Moralia]
• Publishes Dictionary (1538), a Latin-English dictionary

Richard Mulcaster (1548-1611, Eng.). Schoolmaster.

• Positions (1581); The First Part of the Elementarie (1582)
• Aim of education to "help nature to her perfection"
• Emphases:
                  All children can profit form elementary education in vernacular
                  Too many seek training in classical languages
                  Schooling for boys and girls, all levels
                  Schools should be happy, not oppressive places
                  Travel education unwise for youth
                  Teacher training colleges at universities needed

Scheduled reading
Consult course calendar.

Images
Slide List Six.