Page:The History of CRGS.djvu/14

 School, and so in the present context do not call for extensive comment.

In the Court Roll for 1357 (20th March, Monday before the Feast of St. Benedict) under the heading essoigns occurs the name of Alice, "maid of the school—master" (magistri scolarum). In this, as in the next item, it is significant that the reference is to a "school-master." While many churches and chantries had their own schools, the instructors there were the parish priests and would presumably be described as such in official documents; and thus these references to a person specifically employed as schoolmaster tally with the ideas evoked by the references to a "scolae ejusdem ville" and a "great school."

The other reference, as translated by Sir W. G. Benham from the Court Rolls (4th June, 1425) records :—

"That the Master of the scholars of the Town of Colchester on the Feast of St. Nicholas the Bishop, 1 Henry VI (i.e. 6 Dec., 1422) at Colchester, in the parish of St. Nicholas, made an assault on the son of Roger Sebryght, then Bishop in the said church, with force and arms, and violently pulled him from the highway into the mud, making him dirty and treating him shamefully; and that he committed other enormities, etc. . . . Also that the same Master is in the habit of demanding from his scholars unreasonable fines and customs, namely from the son of Nicholas Ferrour, on the ground that they were Crossbearers of the Bishops, namely 2d. each."

For this he was fined 6d.—more than two years, it will be noted, after the offence.

Some explanation is perhaps necessary here. The "Bishop in the said church" would be a schoolboy, elected on December 6th, St. Nicholas' Day, by his fellows, and holding office with his attendants until Holy Innocents' Day (Dec. 28th), during which period the "Bishop" would conduct services in full pontificals. It will be observed once again that the scholars are described as of the town of Colchester and not of the church; the choice of St. Nicholas' Church for the ceremony has its obvious reason, and there is no implication that the school was in any way connected. The Boy-Bishop custom was a recognised feature of medieval school life, and was found all over Europe. Although frequently banned by the Church it persisted in England until the Reformation, and later still in parts of the continent. In Switzerland it is recorded as late as 1797 (Hone, Ancient Mysteries Described, 193 sq.).

SUMMARY

Information about the early school at Colchester is provided by some ancient documents, mostly from the borough records (see ). From these it is certain that there was a school in Colchester at least as early as the reign of King John. This is described in two of the documents as the " town—school," and in another as Rh