training and appointment of priests. By 1150 we have, clearly evolved, the
system of central supervision of the training of all teachers in the
diocese through the issuing, for the first time in Europe, of licenses to
teach (R. 83). The system was finally put into legal form by a decree
adopted by a general council of the Church at Rome, in 1179, which
required that the _scholasticus_ "should have authority to superintend all
the schoolmasters of the diocese and grant them licenses without which
none should presume to teach," and that "nothing be exacted for licenses
to teach" issued by him, thus stopping the charging of fees for their
issuance. The _precentor_, in a similar manner, claimed and often secured
supervision of all elementary, and especially all song-school instruction.
Teachers were also required to take an oath of fealty and obedience (R. 84
b).

As a result of centuries of evolution we thus find, by 1200, a limited but
powerful church school system, with centralized control and supervision of
instruction, diocesan licenses to teach, and a curriculum adapted to the
needs of the institution in control of the schools. We also note the
beginnings of secular instruction in the training of the nobility for
life's service, though even this is approved and sanctioned by the Church.
The centralized religious control thus established continued until the
nineteenth century, and still exists to a more or less important degree in
the school systems of Italy, the old Austro-Hungarian States, Germany,
England, and some other western nations. As we shall see later on, one of
the big battles in the process of developing state school systems has come
through the attempt of the State to substitute its own organization for
this religious monopoly of instruction.


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION