Schools, Christian

Schools, Christian At a very early period, schools were established in connection with the churches; and if no building was provided for this purpose, the schools were taught in the baptistry and the vestry. This is evident from the observation which Socrates makes upon the education of Julian the Apostate — "that in his youth he frequented the church, where, in those days, the schools were kept." He speaks of the schools of grammar and rhetoric, which, it seems, were then taught at Constantinople in some apartment belonging to the church. Catechetical and charity schools were also established, especially for instruction in scriptural knowledge. The second Council of Chalons, in 813, enacted that bishops should set up schools to teach ordinary literature and a knowledge of the Scriptures. The sixth General Council of Constantinople recommended the setting up of charity schools in all the country churches. One of its canons is to this purpose: "that presbyters in country towns and villages should have schools to teach all such children as were sent to them, for which they should exact no reward nor take anything, except the parents of the children thought fit to make them any charitable present by way of voluntary oblation. Another of those canons speaks of schools in churches and monasteries, subject to the bishop's care and direction; from which we may conclude that schools were anciently very common appendants, both of cathedral and country churches" (Bingham, Antiq. of the Christ. Church, 1, 314). SEE PAEDAGOGICS.