As everyone knew, Hogwarts had been founded a thousand years ago by four great wizards.
They were Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.
The four great founders had each come from the most prestigious pure-blood wizarding families of their era. Though they should have held conservative views on the inheritance of magic, these four outstanding young wizards possessed, unusually, broad minds and forward-looking vision.
They realized that the inheritance of magic had to become open, that gifted children of Muggle birth had to be given a chance to glimpse the mysteries of magic (though Slytherin held a different view). Only then could magic flourish without decline.
Thus, united by a common ideal, the four founders established Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry amid mountains and dark waters.
In the early days of the school, the four founders jointly governed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They taught everything they knew to the descendants of wizards from similarly distinguished families who admired their magic, while also admitting students from the Muggle world.
At the beginning, the Four Founders charged every student tuition to support the school's operations, but they soon discovered a problem.
The tuition was no hardship for descendants of magical families, but many magically gifted children born in the Muggle world could not afford the cost of studying at Hogwarts. In response, the four great founders waived tuition for those children.
While those children were grateful, this created new problems.
The school's unequal treatment provoked widespread dissatisfaction in the magical world. In that era, when bloodline was considered supreme and teaching the secrets of magic to Muggles drew condemnation, this distinction subjected the newly founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to fierce criticism.
After careful consideration, the four founders decided that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft