18 
A Study of Student Loans and 
by little, however, the secular interests came to the forefront. Until the 
middle of the sixteenth Century, the time of Martin Luther, it was the 
religious motive which controlled the Situation and so no distinction can 
really be made between the financial support of education and that of 
religion. This religious motive remained the dominant one until the 
latter part of the eighteenth Century and so religious denominations were 
the chief source of support. 3 New motives were gradually introduced. 
Higher education began to be looked upon as having a cultural value, an 
influence on citizenship, and finally an economic value. These new motives 
furnished an argument for new sources of support and so wealthy indi- 
viduals left endowments for certain schools of learning; the States assumed 
educational responsibilities; and finally the Student was asked to pay his 
share of higher education. The religious motive as the sole motive for 
higher education, was first challenged by Martin Luther. 
Martin Luther and the New Motives 
Martin Luther pointed out that: 
even though there were neither soul, heaven, nor hell, it would 
still be necessary to have schools for the sake of affairs here below, as the 
history of the Greeks and Romans plainly teaches. The world has need of 
educated men and women to the end that the men may govern the country 
properly, and that the women may properly bring up their children and direct 
the affairs of their households. 4 
Luther further pointed out and insisted in his teachings that: 
schooling was to be brought to all the people, noble and common, 
rieh and poor; it was to include both boys and girls, and finally the state was 
to use compulsion if necessary. 5 
Martin Luther’s doctrines formed the opening wedge for a program 
of state support for education in general and gradually for higher 
education. 
Beginning of State Support 
Luther, therefore, was in a large measure responsible for the propa- 
gation of the idea of a state system of secondary schools together with 
institutions of higher learning which developed in Germany. This was 
the first state support given to higher learning and it was brought about 
by a changed purpose in higher education. The next state to take 
interest in the support of higher education was France. In this country 
higher education was the first division of learning to be favored by state 
support, for in 1806 the University of France was established which 
included in itself, practically as a department of the National Govern 
*Ibid„ p. 729. 
4 Monroe—Op. Cit., p. 410. 
5 Ibid., p. 412.