The Tudor Society

Medieval and Tudor Education Quiz

Claire Ridgway

If you've seen Claire's recent Claire Chats videos then this should be easy for you!

Education in Medieval and Tudor Times

Q1) At what age was it believed that children became capable of committing a mortal sin?

5

6

7

8

Correct! That was usually when they started getting their adult teeth and it was also when boys were breeched, i..e moved from skirts to hose and breeches.
Wrong! It was at the age of 7. That was usually when they started getting their adult teeth and it was also when boys were breeched, i..e moved from skirts to hose and breeches.

Q2) Which Tudor scholar wrote "love is fitter than fear, gentleness better than beating, to bring up a child rightly in learning", as opposed to advising corporal punishment.

Roger Ascham

John Cheke

Thomas More

William Cecil

Correct! That quotation is from his treatise "The Scholemaster". Ascham was a tutor to Elizabeth I when she was a child.
Wrong! It was Roger Ascham, former tutor of Elizabeth I, and the quotation is from his treatise "The Scholemaster".

Q3) In his "The Boke named the Gouernor", which was published in 1531, Sir Thomas Elyot compared the education of the children of noblemen to the "policie" of a ..........

Shepherd

Fisherman

Cook

Gardener

Correct! He compared it to “the policie of a wyse and counnynge gardener” who wants to grow “a fyne and preciouse herbe”.
Wrong! He compared it to “the policie of a wyse and counnynge gardener” who wants to grow “a fyne and preciouse herbe”

Q4) What was viewed as a pre-requisite of social success?

Good manners

Being born into a noble family

Knowing Latin

Correct!
Wrong! It was good manners.

Q5) How many universities were there in Tudor England?

5

4

3

2

Correct! Oxford and Cambridge.
Wrong! There were two: Oxford and Cambridge.

Q6) What did children learn straight after their ABC?

Nursery Rhymes

The Ten Commandments

The Lord's Prayer

The Creed

Correct!
Wrong! It was the Lord's Prayer, or Pater Noster.

Q7) What did a child do before reciting the alphabet?

Do the sign of the cross

Kneel

Clap a rhythm

Say the Ave

Correct! And s/he would end it with "Amen".
Wrong! S/he did the sign of a cross and s/he would end the alphabet with "Amen".

Q8) Tudor children learned their alphabets using tablets covered with a transparent sheet of .....

Animal skin

Bone

Onion skin

Horn

Correct! The tablet was called a horn book.
Wrong! It was animal horn. The tablet was called a horn book.

Q9) In the 13th century, Odo Cheriton viewed the children's tablet as an illustration of .........

The crucifixion of Christ

The birth of mankind

The Bible

Pentecost

Correct! He wrote "Just as the sheet on which the ABC taught to children is fixed with four nails to a board, so the flesh or skin of Christ was stretched out on the cross."
Wrong! He viewed it as an illustration of the crucifixion of Christ.

Q10) What did Henry VIII publish in 1545 to standardise education?

A national curriculum

A set of rules for every school to pin up

A primer, or first reading book

A collection of nursery rhymes and stories

Correct! A primer was a first reading book.
Wrong! He published a primer.

Here are links to Claire's videos on education:

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