JOHN BRINSLEY AND HIS EDUCATIONAL

TREATISES

GEORGE WM. MCCLELLAND

Assistant Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania

"But that we ever remember, that they are children, God's children, heires of his Kingdome; wee are to nurture them onely vnder him, to traine them vp for him, and for his Church; nor to correct nature, but vice; to do all to the end to make them men."

A

LITTLE more than three centuries ago the writer of these words, a Puritan schoolmaster by the name of John Brinsley, was endeavoring to glorify God by a faithful performance of his duties as master of the grammar school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. When he was elected to the position in 1601 the school was in its thirty-fifth year and had been served by many schoolmasters, including Joseph Hall, a native son, who was afterwards to become famous as Bishop of Exeter.1 But none of them, we judge, had been more zealous than was Brinsley in serving to instruct youth "in good morals, learning, knowledge, and virtue"-the avowed purpose of the founders.2

Brinsley was progressive in spirit and he came to see for himself a wider field than a single parish. As the years of experience brought him face to face with the problems of instruction, he endeavored to solve them, not merely for his own benefit but for the improvement of all British schools similar to his own. In spite of the confining routine in the Ashby school he found time to make inquiry of colleagues in London and elsewhere and to put their suggestions to the test, using his own classroom as an experimental laboratory. After years of educational research he came to such a positive conviction that the adoption of more intelligent methods of imparting information would effect a needed reform in the grammar

'Carlisle, Endowed Grammar Schools, I, 794.

2

Henry, Earl of Huntington, Lord Hastings of Loughborough, Robert Brookesby, Nicholas Ashbye, and Robert Baynbrig.

schools that he published the truth as he had found it in a series of treatises and textbooks. His ambition was frankly given to the world when in 1622 he stated as his aim and hope "that all sorts for whom they haue been written, may reape some benefit by them, so long as schooles or learning shall remaine." 1

The influence of any teacher of strong personality upon the thought that molds men's lives is, of course, quite incapable of measurement. It is all the more impossible by any sort of investigation to look back across the intervening centuries and estimate how far Brinsley's ideal attained to realization. Yet we can feel sure that such a kindly, intelligent, and forceful instructor as his books show him to have been must have left an impression upon the boys who studied under him at Ashby and wherever else he taught, and his practical suggestions must have been invaluable to many a country schoolmaster whose intentions were better than the training he had undergone.

That he was influential in his day and for several decades thereafter is proved by the demand for many editions of his books down to and even past the Restoration. He is referred to frequently as an authority by Hoole (1660), who joins his name with Ascham's as an exponent of double translation, cites his Golden Rule of Construing as that of the "industrious Mr. Brinsley," and adds, "Mr. Brinsley seemeth to have made a Discovery of a more perfect method, than was in his time used, or is yet generally received." 2

A writer who neither made pretensions to literary ability nor enunciated broad educational principles could not have expected to retain what temporary fame he enjoyed during his later years. Brinsley focused his attention upon the more minute matters of classroom instruction. Adopting without serious question the limited curriculum that had become more or less standardized in the grammar schools of the early seventeenth century, he aimed to disseminate a more intelligent and thus more productive method of teaching the few subjects that such a course of study provided. Practical suggestions, if they prove of value, are readily passed on from educator to educator without any tag of authorship. Furthermore, imitation of a successful teacher is quite as apt to be unconscious as conscious, and as the years passed there were undoubtedly many schoolmasters who

'Consolation for Our Grammar Schooles, p. 18.

'A New Discovery (Bardeen reprint), pp. 183, 129, 325.

were practising the Brinsley method in total ignorance that such a great teacher had taught, written, and passed on. It is therefore not surprising that the present incumbent at Ashby when asked for information about his remote predecessor wrote frankly, “I must confess that I never heard of him.” 1

2

It has remained for recent scientific educators to rediscover John Brinsley and appreciate the historical significance of his writings. As early as 1868 Quick, in speaking of Brinsley's most interesting books, commented, "The first of these (i. e., the Ludus Literarius) when reprinted, as it is sure to be, will always secure for its author the notice and the gratitude of the students of the history of our education." The histories have given Brinsley passing notice, although the references are limited almost exclusively to his most famous treatise.3 Recent investigators into certain phases of grammar-school instruction have summed up and cited passages from the Ludus as illustrations of the prevailing practice of the day, but Quick's prophecy concerning republication has not yet been fulfilled. Mr. Foster Watson, who has contributed so much that sheds light upon the books used in the Elizabethan grammar schools and the means employed in teaching them, is another who has shown cause for making accessible the books of this shrewd preacher and practitioner who was an important educator of his day: "I especially plead for the books of John Brinsley and Charles Hoole. The names may be but little known to the general public. Yet for an account of the best educational procedure of their times, and for educational bibliography, there are surely no superior works in English history."

Brinsley is thus slowly coming into his own but in a way that he would scarcely have foreseen. His reputation among his contemporaries rested upon the novelty of his schemes for improving the quality of teaching, but whatever permanent fame he is to enjoy will depend upon his incidental reflection of the conditions that prevailed at the time. He revealed the ills in order to propose the remedy; we, impressed though we may be by the insight and excellent judgment revealed in his suggestions, find our chief interest in the 'Letter dated April 30, 1916, from Mr. C. Elliott, Head Master. Educational Reformers, p. 200.

3

E. g. Mark, Educational Theories in England.

4

Stowe, English Grammar Schools in the Reign of Elizabeth; Adamson, Pioneers of Modern Education, pp. 20-21; Brown, The Making of Our Middle Schools; Watson, English Grammar Schools.

Educational Review, London, June, 1899.

diagnosis. In that lay his lasting contribution to the profession that he esteemed so highly.

The question of fame, however, would not have disturbed John Brinsley. He was a man of whom Wordsworth would have approved. A teacher who devoted much time "to high thinking," he regarded duty as a blessed opportunity and the means of securing the highest happiness. He was not a man to be concerned "whether praise of him must walk the earth forever."

This characterization of the man is written between the lines of his books. He shows himself as a kindly gentleman, most generous in recognizing the well-intended efforts of others, yet deliberately austere and severe on occasion and dogmatic when the results of his experience have led him to positive beliefs. He had been too close. to the actual, discouraging facts to be idealistic in his view of grammar-school conditions, and he knew that the best of intentions may procure ill results; yet he was quietly and steadfastly optimistic. A general improvement in education seemed to him quite feasible, yet every worker must get all possible light upon his task, must be inspired by the highest motives, and then work diligently at his portion of labor. Not allowing himself to yield to anger (except to righteous indignation as he meditated upon the Papists), he could feel and express the most burning moral passion for his God, for the Church, and for the education which he felt to be in the service of both.

As yet but few facts of his life story have come to light. The date of his birth is unknown but may be placed c. 1565. He went up to Christ's College, Cambridge, in March, 1580-1, and as he recommends fifteen as the minimum age for university matriculates, it is fair to assume that his own experience had been similar. Brinsley was the type of conscientious man who would be apt to mention any apparent contradiction between his preachments and his actual practice. His name appears as Bringley when he first matriculated as sizar at Christ's, whereas he is recorded in the University Register as Brinley. Later he was registered as scholar under the name of Brinsley, and in 1584-5 the degree of A. B. was bestowed upon John Brynsley. The M.A. followed in 1588.1

'Information furnished by Mr. R. Benham, Assistant Registrary of the University of Cambridge.

Almost nothing is known of his whereabouts between 1588 and his appointment to the school at Ashby-de-la-Zouch in 1601. Probably he had been teaching elsewhere during the interval, for in 1621 he told the educational world that he had had "much and long experience of diverse places" and also referred to the beginning of his "Schoole labours" as "now aboue 30 years ago." From this same treatise we learn that he "had from the beginning for sundry years the aduice and direction" of Master John Ireton of Kegworth in Leicestershire, "who was well knowne to be inferiour to few in all excellent learning, and euen in this kinde (i. e., teaching) among others." Elsewhere Brinsley refers to Ireton as "a worthy learned man whom Cambridge in his time much reuerenced, who hauing laboured many yeares with litle fruite, amongst a blinde, and superstitious people, was wont much to lament, that he was enforced to labour in a barren soyle where salt had bene sowen: whence he vsed to affirme that the chiefe hope of Gods church for all such pleaces so nuzled vp in rudeness and superstition, was to come out of our Grammar schooles." 1

Evidently Ireton was the clergyman of the parish and as there was no established grammar school in the village it is safe to conjecture that Brinsley kept a private school. From the first, at any rate, he was led to see the importance of the relation of the schools to the church.

However many "diuerse places" he may have tarried in en route, he was at Ashby by 1601. He had previously married the sister of Joseph Hall, later Bishop of Exeter and of Norwich, who had already begun to bring fame to his native village. Possibly Hall's influence was responsible for the appointment. The schoolmaster's son and namesake, whose fame as an ardent Puritan preacher was to eclipse that of the father, had been born in 1600.2

The Ludus Literarius (1612) was published during Brinsley's headmastership at Ashby, so that from this his greatest work we can construct the picture of his service to the school. But fortunately we have the testimony of one of his scholars to bear out the truth of the master's self-revelations, in the Autobiography of William Lilly, the astrologer.

1

Consolidation, pp. 11, 15, 28, 37.

Allibone confuses the two and credits the son with his father's educational publications.