Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/335

 Martin Bucer on Education 331 ing them to church to be catechized, is placed upon parents, and is declared of the highest importance, for, if the foundations are not solidly laid, the building up of the religious life can hardly proceed. This emphasis on the early teaching of the doctrines of the Church was life-long with Bucer. The cate- chism was taught in the schools for the people founded in Strass- burg in his day, and in letters written to his children from England he exhorts them to learn their catechism. 45 It was especially necessary that he should recommend religious instruc- tion to King Edward, for he had observed with sorrow that there was in England no proper training in Christian doctrine. 46 But though no man was more concerned than Bucer for religious education, he was also a firm supporter of secular education, notwithstanding that his turn of mind was religious rather than humanistic. In fact, he took some pains to refute the arguments of those who, as fanatics have done in all ages, objected to profane learning. He pointed out that of the logical arts grammar assisted one to speak, dialectic aided one to gain an understanding of other arts, and to see, to teach, and to defend the truth, and rhetoric helped one in persuasion. Moral philos- ophy assisted in knowing and controlling one's own affections and morals, and in administering properly both household and public matters. Natural philosophy, by setting forth the wonders of the world, made to shine out the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of God. And Bucer proceeds to give examples from Scripture of the study and knowledge of philoso- phy, and to point out that schools had been founded by pious princes. Then declaring that in the course of time the schools had fallen into error and lost the pure teaching of Christian doctrine, of the learned tongues, and of all good arts, he continues: Nevertheless, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, having pitied our errors and our ruin, in this our own recent time has again showed himself in these very schools, which, not without many very bitter contentions, have brought back and little by little established the study of the tongues which are necessary to solid erudition, and of worthy disciplines. 47 45 E.g., Baum, op. cit., p. 549. /&.,p.550. 47 Scripta Anglicana, p. 585.