CHAPTER XVIII.

ENGLISH EDUCATION IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.-- A.D. 1300 TO 1400.

Effect of French wars not favourable to learning. Richard of Bury and his libraries. State of the universities. They were not then, as now, places of education for the lay higher classes. System of education fostered by chivalry explained. Its advantages. The baronial households schools for noble youths. Christian principles fostered by this system. Elzear of Sabran. Education of women at the same period. The domestic virtues cultivated. Illustrations from old romances. Cultivation of the English language. Poor-schools. School books of the fourteenth century. Primers. Versified instructions. Chaucer as the representative of an educated Englishman of the fourteenth century. Character of his learning examined. Classics imperfectly known. Wickliffe and the Lollards. Their influence on learning. Early English Catholic versions of the Scriptures existed before the time of Wickliffe. Proofs and illustrations. 529