A HELP TO CATECHISING, FOR THE USE OF Clergymen, Schools, and Private Families. BY JAMES BEAVEN, M.A. CURATE OF LEIGH, "There is no one thing whereof I repent so much, as not to have BISHOP HALL. LONDON: JAMES BURNS, 17 PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE. 1841. 54. INTRODUCTION. HE parochial clergyman and the schoolmaster of modern times perform for the children of the Church the service rendered by the catechist of the primitive Church to the adult candidates for baptism. For in those times all such persons went through a regular course of instruction preparatory to being admitted into the Church; and that this instruction might be properly imparted, a person was appointed for that purpose by the bishop, whose duty it was to train them to the knowledge of elementary doctrines and duties. This person was sometimes a clergyman, as, for instance, Cyril, afterwards archbishop of Jerusalem; and sometimes a layman, as Clement of Alexandria, and Origen. There is, however, I believe, no evidence that the same care was extended to Christian children and youth, though it is reasonable to suppose that something of the sort was done; but they appear to have been left to the care of their sponsors, who were supposed to be bound to see that they were taught whatever a Christian ought to know, believe, and practise. By what steps children were brought under the direct instruction of the clergy, it is difficult to say; but the foundation was laid as early as the year 1385, in the general understanding (though, probably, with a out any express provision) that it was the duty of the parochial clergy to explain to the youth of their flocks. the rudiments of religion; and in particular, as it would seem, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the seven works of mercy, and the seven mortal sins. This appears from a manual of instructions for the clergy, drawn up, under the title of Pupilla Oculi Sacerdotum, from previous works of acknowledged authority, by John de Burgo, chancellor of the University of Cambridge, professor of divinity, and rector of Collingham; and reprinted, as late as the year 1510, for circulation in England. But how far this understanding was acted up to, we have no sufficient information. We know, likewise, that there were schools attached to many of the monastic establishments, in which, as all education was then more religious than secular, children would be instructed in the elements of their faith and duty; and there were, likewise, schoolmasters besides, who were controlled by the Church, and might not teach any thing contrary to the Christian religion.' But we find no trace of any regular provision for the systematic instruction of the young in the principles and duties of religion. The foundation, however, which had been thus laid before the Reformation was not lost sight of; and in the course of it various elementary works were published; and these gradually prepared the way for the production of the present Catechism of the Church, which was required to be taught by the parochial clergy every Sunday in their churches, and by all schoolmasters, who were likewise required to be li 1 See the Provincial Constitutions, lib. v. c. 7, in Howel's Synopsis Canonum. censed by the bishop.' So that the Church still kept the religious education of the young under her control. The lapse of time since the Reformation has produced sundry changes. The same event which bound upon the clergy a closer attention to the instruction of the young took away a very large portion of the provision for the clergy themselves: so that, when population increased, they were not able to obtain that assistance in teaching, which, if the resources of the Church had not been impaired, they might have derived from the inferior functionaries of the Church, and from the members of convents, properly controlled and regulated. Meanwhile, however, endowed schools, which had begun to be established before the Reformation, by the movement in favour of education which led to that great event, sprung up by degrees in different parts of the country, erected either by the crown out of portions of the revenues of the suppressed convents, or through the munificence of corporations or private individuals, -in which the masters were either clergymen or licensed by the bishop, and in which it was an essential part of the system that the Catechism of the Church should be taught. Of these, about four-fifths were established in the period between the beginning of the Reformation and the Great Rebellion. Thus considerable provision was made for the instruction of the middle classes in the principles of the established Church; and the youth of the upper classes habitually received the same instruction from the chaplains, whom it was the 1 See the rubric at the end of the Catechism, and the seventy-seventh and seventy-ninth canons of the Church. |