PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA.

HISTORY-GOVERNMENT-TERRITORY-POPULATION.

WHEN the seven sons of Ernest the Pious divided the inherited dominions, duke Albert acquired Coburg, and the youngest son, John Ernest, became possessed of Saalfeld, to which, in 1699, when the line of Albert became extinct, the principal part of Coburg was annexed. John Ernest died in 1729, and was succeeded by his son Francis Josias, who in 1745 transferred his residence from Saalfeld to Coburg, and assumed the title of duke of Coburg-Saalfeld. The duke Ernest, (1806-1844,) having been in the active military service of Prussia, was deprived of his duchy by order of Napoleon, who, however, subsequently restored it to him in 1807. He acquired, in 1826, from the division after the death of Frederic IV, (see Saxe-Meiningen,) the duchy of Gotha. The present (1868) duke is Ernest II, who succeeded his father in 1844, the brother of the late Prince Albert, consort of the British queen.

The fundamental law of the duchy was proclaimed in 1852, and vests the crown in duke Ernest II, and his descendants, or these failing, in the children of his brother, except the sovereign or heir-apparent of England. The legislative authority is vested in two separate assemblies, one for the province of Coburg and the other for the province of Gotha; the former consists of eleven, the latter of nineteen members, chosen every four years, in as many electoral districts, by the direct vote of all the inhabitants. Every second year the two diets unite in one Chamber, to which Coburg sends seven, and Gotha fourteen members, called the United Parliament, which meets alternately at Coburg and Gotha.

The population of the duchy was 159,431 in 1861 (851 Catholics, 1,578 Jews;) the area, 816 English square miles.

DUCHY OF GOTHA.

The schools of the little duchy of Gotha, in the centre of Germany, have long attracted the attention of educators in other countries, because much has been done by a succession of able princes in favor of true popular education.

I. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

A. Their History.-Our first information of the existence of a school in Gotha bears the date of 1299. This school is mentioned in connection with Margaret church, which existed as early as 1254, and had a rector and a magister. There were two schools in Gotha in 1327, one in con

nection with Margaret church, the other with Maria church, on the castle hill, which building was pulled down in 1530 by order of elector Frederic I. There is also mentioned, somewhat later, a Latin school, with schoolmaster and assistants, and a girls' school in connection with Margaret church, but this Latin school may be identical with the one already mentioned. There were also schools in the towns of Ohrdruf and Waltershausen at that early period. In Ohrdruf there was a school in connection with the chapter-house, and we find in the accounts of the town treasury of Waltershausen in 1496, an entry concerning a schoolmaster, Wendelinus von Elxleben, who received a scanty remuneration and moreover four groschen earnest-money (Leihkauf,) every year, and as much again for ringing the bell at St. Martin's eve. It is worthy of remark that the school of Waltershausen had only from twenty-eight to thirty-two scholars in 1526, though there were at that time three hundred and four citizens. Old documents mention, moreover, a school in Tambach and in Hörselgau, in the latter place even a girls' school. All these schools mentioned before the Reformation were certainly not elementary-schools, in our sense of the word; as the documents leave no doubt that they were cathedral-schools or convent-schools, or mediæval high-schools, at which the instruction in Catholic theology and in the Latin language were given by monks or authorized schoolmasters (Zunftige,) with their itinerant scholars (fahrende schuler.) We can not be astonished at the want of interest which the secular clergy showed; for the ministers in the duchy were-according to Fr. Rudolphi's Gotha Diplomatica, 1. 162-illiterate mechanics, even at the beginning of the Reformation. For example, the minister of Molschleben was a butcher, the one of Wiegleben a weaver, the one of Warza a cooper, the one of Trugleben a barber's assistant, and so on. School-reform commenced in Gotha, as well as in other countries, with the reform of the Church, yet it is an interesting fact that Dr. Martin Luther directly influenced the reform of the school-system in Gotha. Luther had come to Gotha as early as 1516, in place of Staupitz, on an inspection of the convents of the Augustinians in Thuringia, where his doctrine of the justification by faith found great sympathy with the monks. On his journey to Worms, he preached on April 8th, 1521, in the church of the Augustinians here, and caused such an enthusiasm that-as Myconius tells us in his History of the Reformation (p. 38)—" the devil became so wroth that he tore some tiles off the gable end of the church which looks toward the city wall."

The immorality of the clergy hastened the Reformation in Gotha. For the exasperated citizens of Gotha, having driven out the disorderly clergy, on Tuesday of Whitsuntide, 1524, the council, the parish, the dean, and the court, entreated duke John, who governed at that time jointly with his brother, elector Frederic the Wise, to declare for the Reformation in the duchy of Gotha. The petition was granted, and Frederic Myconius, Luther's intimate friend, was inaugurated as the first Evangelical minister and superintendent of Gotha, in August, 1524. Luther wrote in the

same year his letter, addressed to the nobility and councilors of German cities,* in which he exhorted them, in his energetic and rough language, to establish Christian schools and to support them. Myconius, Luther's friend, considered it, therefore, one of his principal duties to take interest in the schools of Gotha. He fused all the schools that were in existence into one, established it in the convent of the Augustinians, (1524,) and became thus the founder of the "gymnasium." This task was not an easy one, for, according to Myconius' statement, "schools and studies were utterly despised by the mob, and it would be much easier to find ten ready to storm and destroy a school, than one or two willing to help in building one." In his History of the Reformation, (p. 54,) Myconius states further: "Nobody would believe what an immense amount of labor is required to build a new house with warped and rotten wood. Oh, how long have we been compelled to work against the stream and to fetch every thing from out of the fire. Now, God, help us, that it may be preserved to our posterity," &c.

When Myconius had regulated the town-schools and had put a rector (M. Monnerus) at their head, he turned his attention to the foundation of elementary-schools, inspired by Luther's letter addressed to the ministers (1527.) In this letter, Luther desires "that they should read the catechism to the children and servants every Sunday afternoon at church, and hear them recite." This demand met with no difficulty, in towns. Ministers in the country, however, could not give their attention to the young at that time, having to attend to their duties in the numerous chapels scattered over a wide district. To comply with Luther's desire, it became necessary to make arrangements for a substitute of the minister; and he was found in the minister's servant, his clerk, bell-ringer, or sacristan. The first foundation stone for common schools in Gotha was laid by this decree, that "the clerk, in place of the minister, should diligently and zealously instruct the young in catechism, hymn-singing, and prayer." The erection of the building was greatly promoted by the practical application of the Evangelical principle, that "every Christian should read God's word in the Bible," obliging the clerk to instruct the children on several days of the week in Bible reading, particularly during the winter months. Casimir's church regulations, published February 17, 1626, give us a clear insight into the condition of the schools at that time, as they contain the following instruction: "The sacristan shall be elected by the judges, deacons and elders, with the consent of the minister, from among the parishioners; he shall then be presented to the consistory, who, having subjected him to an examination and found him sufficiently qualified, will confirm his appointment." "Nobody shall be nominated or appointed against the minister's will, considering that they are to live together and to help each other, also considering that a minister has authority over his sacristan." About the duties of the sacristan the church regulations state: "He shall be obliged to assist the minister

* Barnard's Journal, vol. iv. page 429-440.

in all official duties; he shall, moreover, diligently and comprehensively teach the children the catechism and the hymns of Dr. Luther, every Sunday afternoon, and during the week on a stated day; and he shall, having read and recited the articles of the catechism, hear the children recite the same, and institute an examination." In addition to the duty of catechizing, "the custodes or village sacristans shall keep regularly school, in which they shall teach the children reading, writing, and those hymns that are sung in church.” "The sacristans are forbidden to practice law, or to take boarders into their houses, or to sell ardent liquors. In return, the parishioners are forbidden to beset the sacristan on the day when he receives his annual donation, (Leihkauf,) compelling him to spend the greater part of the money in treating them to drinks; this unchristian extortion should be discontinued." "Only when elected for the first time, may the sacristan spend some groschen (not more than six) to treat his parishioners to drinks." The article of the church regulations referring to private occupations of the sacristans, is very singular: "The sacristans having mostly but a small income, and the churches and parishes being mostly too poor to maintain an idler in such office; therefore, the village sacristans, who know any trade, shall have permission to practice it at home and at hours not employed at school, to gain what is necessary for their subsistence; but they are forbidden to work in mansions, or to offer their work for sale, to the prejudice of the masters of such trade." It is clear, from all that has been said, that the sacristans were in a very sad condition, and that a regular common-school system could not well exist. The principal duties of the sacristans were those of servants of the church and of the minister, and their occupation as teachers was quite secondary. The school did not aim to develop the human faculties naturally and harmoniously, but was a mere church-institute, maintained in the service of a certain denomination, and designed to assist in the propagation of the Evangelical worship. All this broke down with the Thirty Years' War! Ministers and teachers fled from the ruins of parsonages and school-houses, deserted their trusts, gave themselves up to the licentiousness of a soldier's life, did the meanest work as day-laborers, or sought their daily bread, like the schoolmaster of Mechterstadt, by begging near the gates.

Duke Ernest the Pious (1640 to 1675) has the merit of having rescued the common schools of Gotha from utter destruction, during the fearful time of the Thirty Years' War, and of having planted a new, vigorous, and religious life on the ruins of the past. He, the pedagogue among the princes and the prince of the pedagogues, is the father of our present common schools. We can not enumerate all he did toward the reëstablishment and advancement of the common-school system in Gotha. A few facts must suffice. Immediately after his solemn entry into Gotha, (October 24th, 1640,) duke Ernest issued a proclamation, addressed to all his subjects, clerical and lay, by which he made known that he would institute an inquiry into the condition of the church and country at the

earliest day possible, in order to ascertain the wants and the deficiencies, and thus to learn by what laws and institutions he might assist his subjects. The school-visitation was ordered by decree of October 13th, 1641, and it was further ordered that the ministers, the servants of schools, and the elders of the parishes should be examined about " certain points in question." It was by these means and by personal inspection, that the duke not only became acquainted with the sad ignorance and the fearful degeneracy of the people, but also obtained the knowledge of the means with which the evil might be healed. To check the progress of ruin, he invited an educator into the country, who had all the qualities required to do the great work of school reform which the duke intended. This man was Andrew Reyher, rector in Schleusingen, (born May 4th, 1601, in Heinrichs, near Suhl.) Reyher was intimately acquainted with the principles of the greatest pedagogues of that time, viz., Ratich and Comenius, and was, as a teacher, himself a representative of his age. The first thing the duke desired him to do was to draw up a methodus docendi for the lower classes of the gymnasium, but arranged in such a manner that it might be useful for the whole country. Reyher, whose whole life had been devoted to nothing but " didacticæ," -as he declared in his letter to the consistory of the duchy-went vigorously to work at once. The duke faithfully assisted. Rey her relates: "His Grace often caused me repeatedly to alter what I had written, until I had at last satisfied him." The result of these combined labors was received in Germany partly with derision, partly with astonishment and enthusiasm. It bears the title: "School-method, or special and particular report, stating how, under the protection of the Lord, the boys and girls of villages, and the children belonging to the lower class of the population of towns, of this principality of Gotha can and shall be plainly and successfully taught. Written by the order of his Grace the Prince, and printed in Gotha by Peter Schmieden in the year 1642." This manual of school method, republished with alterations in 1648, 1653, 1662, 1672, and 1685, contained minute regulations about every thing that concerned schools and teachers, school superintendence and government, parents and children. The manual consists of thirteen chapters. Chapter I, treats of the nature of the schools in general; of the obligation of the children to attend school, (there was at that time no legal obligation;) of their admission when they had completed their fifth year; of attendance at school in Winter and Summer; of vacations; of the means to obtain the school-books; of a didactic and methodical instruction of the teacher. It is interesting to meet here with the remark that the teacher should pay particular attention to the poor and backward chil dren who do not get on very well in their studies, and further that the teacher himself should, in pronouncing words, very carefully discriminate between different letters which are vulgarly sounded alike. Chapter II, treats of the instruction in the lowest class. It is laid down as a rule, that the beginners should learn Bible verses, the Lord's prayer, the arti