Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/39

 ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 27' children of the town in reading, writing, arithmetic and choir-singing.' At Christmas of the same year these said teachers were entertained by the clergy of the town, and each of them was presented with a piece of cloth for a coat and a small gold coin ; ' for they have all well earned this reward.' In the district of the Middle Ehine, in the year 1500, there were whole stretches of country where a national school was to be found within a circuit of every six miles. Small parishes even of onty 500 or 600 souls, such as Weisenau, near Mentz, Michelstadt, in the Odenwald, were not without their village schools. Throughout the Empire, indeed, the number of schools was generally considerable. In many places also there were largely attended girls' schools. One of these especially, founded by Nicolaus of Cusa at Xanten in 1497, counted eighty-four scholars, from both the nobility and the citizen classes. At its head stood at that time Aldegundis von Horstmar, who had been trained by the ' Brethren of the Social Life,' and whose system of education for young girls was formed on their rules. The citizens of Liibeck founded the cloister of St. Anna in order that the education of their daughters might be carried on in their own city, instead of their having to be sent to distant places, as had often been done before. In the year 1508 this institution was consecrated by the Pope. Special schools were also erected for the children of the nobility ; for instance, the Augustinian Convent for the district of Spires, in Oberlingelheim for those of the Middle Ehine and of the Lower Wetteravia. The latter owed its origin to Elizabeth von Briick, the abbess of the convent there, who was looked upon as