Part 2 (1/2)

When these organized bodies were first forth here, nor could a definite answer be given The University of Oxford is, in this respect, as in so rew rather than was made, like most of our institutions, and it can point to no definite year of foundation, and to no individual as founder Here it must suffice to say that references to students and teachers at Oxford are found with growing frequency all through the twelfth century; but it is only in the last quarter of that century that either of those features which differentiate a university from a mere chance body of students can be clearly traced These two features are organized study and the right of self-governanized study is about 1184, when Giraldus Caraphia Hibernica_ and 'desiring not to hide his candle under a bushel,' came to Oxford to read it to the students there; for three days he 'entertained' his audience as well as read to them, and the poor scholars were feasted on a separate day from the 'Doctors of the different faculties' Here we have definite evidence of organized study Much na Carta[9]), when the faate, which is the oldest charter of the University of Oxford In this the 'Chancellor' is s of that self-governanized study,that the real university was now in existence It is quite probable that the first Doctor of Divinity e find 'incepting' in Oxford, is the learned and saintly Edmund Rich, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; he seen of John, but he had been already teaching secular subjects in the preceding reign (Richard I's) It is significant of mediaeval Oxford's position as a pillar of the Church and a charaduate should be the last Archbishop of Canterbury as canonized, and one of the defenders of English liberties against the overnment of Henry III

[Sidenote: The University a Guild of MAs]

The 'University' of Oxford, like the great sister (or ht we say mother?) school of Paris, was an association of Masters of Arts, and they alone were its proper members In our own days, when not more than half of those who enter the University proceed to the MA Degree, and when only about ten per cent of them reside for any tis seems inconceivable; but it has left its trace, even in popular knowledge, in the well-known fact that MAs are exey is still based upon it It is the MA who is adin', ie to teach (_ad incipiendue and in American Universities the ceremonies at the end of the academic year are called 'Commencement' What seems an Irish bull is really a survival of the oldest university arrangeree']

As then the University is a guild of Masters, the degree is the 'step'

by which the distinction of beco a full o that 'the use of acaderees is visibly borrowed from thehis time, obtains a testimonial of his skill, and his licence to practise his trade or h accurate in the ; the truth is that the learned body has not so much borrowed froements independently on the same idea

[Sidenote: A Bachelor of Arts]

This connexion ree title, 'Bachelor' If the etyy at present best supported inally used for a man orked on a 'cow-strip' of land, ie as assistant of a small cultivator; whether this be true or not, it at any rate soon came to denote the apprentice as opposed to the master-workman; in fact the 'Bachelor' in the university corresponded to the 'pupil-teacher' of more humble associations in our own days In this sense of the word, as Dr Murray quaintly says, a woman student can become a 'Bachelor' of Arts

[Sidenote: Two ele MA's]

It was natural that the existing uild should be consulted as to the admission of newThe ree was tested will be spoken of later, and also the ness to ad them

[Sidenote: (2) Outside authority, that of the Church]

But there is quite a different eleree from that which has so far been mentioned That was democratic, the consent of the community; this is autocratic, the authority conferred by a head, superior to, and outside of the community The Vice-Chancellor of Oxford represents this second principle; he gives the degree in virtue of 'his own authority' as well as of that 'of the University' This authority is originally that of the Church, to which, in England at any rate, all ed; the new student was admitted into the 'boso some form of tonsure, and for the first two centuries of University existence, no other ceremony was needed Matriculation examinations at any rate were in those happy days unknown Hence the authority which the cathedral chancellor, representing the bishop, had exercised over the schools and teachers of the diocese, was extended as a matter of course to the teachers of the newly-risen Universities The fitness of the applicant for a degree was tested by those who had it already, but the ecclesiastical authority gave the 'licence' to teach This ecclesiastical origin of the MA degree is well shown in the formula of admission (pp 15, 16) The new Master is admitted 'in honorem Domini nostri Jesu Christi' and 'in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost'

[Sidenote: The Pope and the Universities]

The close connexion of the Church and higher education is further illustrated by the view of the fourteenth-century jurists that a bull from the Pope or fro body a 'Studiuive its doctors the _jus ubique docendi_[10] A curious survival of the same idea still relish Metropolitan, to recoy; this is probably a survival of the old rights of the Archbishop as 'Legatus Natus' in England of the Holy See

[Sidenote: Survivals in the ree Cere of a ree, the for Masters and the granting of the 'licence' by the Chancellor

Of these the 'licence' is fully retained in our present ceremony; the new MA receives permission (_licentia_) fros to the status of a Master', when 'the requirements of the statutes have been fulfilled' This condition is now less, for he has already fulfilled all 'the requirements'; but in mediaeval times it referred to the second (and as really the most important) part of his qualifications, his appearance at the solemn 'Act' or ceremony which was the chief event of the University year At it Masters and Doctors formally showed that they were able to perform the functions of their new rank, and were then 'admitted' to it by investiture with the 'cap' of authority, with the 'ring', and with the 'kiss' of peace; the kiss was given by the Senior Proctor; the ring was the sye to his science The 'Act' in our day only survives as giving a name to one of our two Summer Terms, which still have a place in the University Calendar, and in the requireh only nine real terradual; already in 1654, when John Evelyn attended the 'Act' at St Mary's, he expresses surprise at 'those ancient cere as yet not wholly abolished'; but the 'Act' survived into another century, although beco more and more of a form; it is last mentioned in 1733 With the ceremony disappeared the forree he is seeking

[Sidenote: The Master in Grammar]

But in the mediaeval University it had been far otherwise The idea that a degree was for himself competent for it, may be well illustrated fro a Master in Grae, as described by the Elizabethan Esquire Bedel, Mr Stokys: 'The Bedel in Arts shall bring the Master in Gra hiive to the said Master in Grammar, and so create him Master Then shall the Bedel purvey for every Master in Grammar a shrewd boy, whom the Master in Graive the boy a groat for his labour, and another groat to him that provideth the rod and the palmer And thus endeth the Act in that faculty' It may be added that the Vice-Chancellor and each of the Proctors received a 'bonnet', but only one, howeverIn Oxford likewise the 'Master in Grais_'

[Sidenote: The Disputations at the Act]

The Oxford MA had to show his qualifications in a way less painful, though as practical, by publicly attacking or defending theses soleation These theses were the one of those appointed in 1600 was 'an uxor perversa humanitate potius quam asperitate sanetur?' ('whether a shrew is better cured by kindness or by severity') This question, obviously suggested by Shakespeare's _Ta of the Shrehich ritten soon after 1594, was answered by the incepting MAs in the opposite sense to the dramatist It need hardly be said that all the disputations were in Latin The Doctors too of the different faculties were created at the 'Act' after disputations on subjects connected with their faculty

So these disputations still survives in a shadowy forrees of BD and DD A candidate for the BD has to read in the Divinity School two theses on soius Professor, a candidate for the DD has to read and expound three passages of Holy Scripture; in both cases notice has to be given beforehand of the subject, a custoht expect to have his theses disputed; but now the Regius Professor and the candidate generally have the Divinity School to themselves

All the ceremonies of the 'Act' have passed away from Oxford co to illustrate the idea that a new Master was not admitted till he had performed a 'ht be expected to do There was till quite recently one last trace of theees of his office till the end of the terh the University, having given up the 'Act', allowed no opportunity of 'incepting', an interval was left in which the cereht have taken place Noever, for purposes of practical convenience, even this for voting in Convocation, &c, as soon as he has been licensed by the Vice-Chancellor Strictly speaking an Oxford man never takes his MA, for there is no ceremony of institution; he is 'licensed' to take part in a ceremony which has ceased to exist

[Sidenote: The Encaenia]

And yet in another form the 'Act' survives in our familiar Commemoration; the relation of this to the 'Act' seems to be somewhat as follows The Sheldonian Theatre was opened, as will be described later (p 81), with a great literary and musical performance, a 'sort of dedication of the Theatre'; this was called 'Encaenia'[12] So pleased was the University with the performance that the Chancellor next year (1670) ordered that it should be repeated annually, on the Friday before the 'Act' From the very first there was a tendency to confuse the two ceremonies; even the accurate antiquarian, Antony Wood, speaks of music as part of 'the Act', which was really perfor, the Encaenia The new function gradually grew in importance, and additions were made to it; the munificent Lord Crewe, prince-bishop of Durhaes of Macaulay, and aroreat wealth for the Creweian Oration, in which annual honour is done to the University Benefactors at the Commemoration