Schools, therefore, in the present acceptation of the
term, in Cranmer's boyhood there were scarcely any; and it was the
crying want of them in London that induced Dean Colet to establish that
of St. Paul's, which, under the fostering care of Lily, the first
master, not only became so distinguished in itself, but set the example,
and prepared the way, by its rules and its grammar, for so many others
which followed in its wake. Edward VI.; with the natural feeling of a
boy fond of knowledge, and himself a proficient for his years, was aware
of the evil, and projected the remedy. Colet might be his model--but he
was embarrassed in his means by courtiers, who were for ever uttering
the cry of the horse-leech's daughters; and, besides, his days were soon
numbered. Cranmer, who perhaps remembered the obstacles in his own way,
and who certainly foresaw the great calamity of an ignorant clergy,
pressed for the establishment of a school in connexion with every
cathedral--a school, as it were, of the prophets--where boys intended
for holy orders might be brought up suitably to the profession they were
about to adopt, and where the bishops might ever find persons duly
qualified to serve God in the church.
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