Again, after the time of the Reformation, when those
monastic institutions were abolished, in the 1st Edw. VI. ch. 14, we
find certain _chantries_ abolished, and their funds appropriated to the
instruction of youth in the grammar schools founded in that reign, which
Lord Eldon says extended all over the kingdom. In all these we find
provision for religious instruction, the dispensation of the same being
by a teacher or preacher. In 2 Swanston, p. 529, the case of the Bedford
Charity, Lord Eldon gives a long opinion, in the course of which he
says, that in these schools care is taken to educate youth in the
Christian religion, and in all of them the New Testament is taught, both
in Latin and Greek. Here, then, we find that the great and leading
provision, both before and after the Reformation, was to connect the
knowledge of Christianity with human letters. And it will be always
found that a school for instruction of youth, to possess the privileges
of a charity, must be provided with religious instruction.
For the decision, that the essentials of Christianity are part of the
common law of the land, I refer your honors to 1 Vernon, p. 293, where
Lord Hale, who cannot be suspected of any bigotry on this subject, says,
that to decry religion, and call it a cheat, tends to destroy all
religion; and he also declares Christianity to be part of the common law
of the land. Mr. N. Dane, in his Abridgment, ch. 219, recognizes the
same principle.
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