Part 3 (1/2)

The list of subjects for a iven here; it may be mentioned, however, that Aristotle, then as always, held a prominent place in Oxford's Schools[15] This was coiven to Mathematics and to Music was a special feature of the Oxford course

The lectures were of course University and not college lectures; the latter hardly existed before the sixteenth century, and were as a rule confined to e As there were no 'Professors' in our sense, the instruction was given by the ordinary Masters of Arts, a were coents' (ie they 'governed the Schools') They were paid by the fees of their pupils (_Collecta_, a word familiar in a different sense in our 'Collections') There was keen coest possible audience, but later on the University enacted that all fees should be pooled and equally divided a the teachers For this (and for other reasons) the lectures became more and more a mere form, and no real part of a student's education

[Sidenote: Cutting Lectures]

There had been fro'[16]

lectures, and there was a further fine of the sa to take notes But the University from time to time tried actually to enforce attendance A curious instance of this occurs toward the close of the reign of Elizabeth; a nu' lectures, they were incurring the guilt of perjury, because they had sworn to obey the statutes which required attendance at lectures They explained they had thought their 'neglect' to hear lectures only involved they they seerees without further difficulty

[Sidenote: Graces]

In fact there was a growing separation after the fifteenth century, between the forree, and the actual University syste

when two students were (in 1599) summoned to explain why they had not attended one of the lectures required for the degree, and they presented the unanswerable excuse that the teacher in question had not lectured, having hi the lecture In fact the whole systeraces' or dispensations, which has already been referred to: how necessary and almost universal these were, may be seen from the fact that even so conscientious a disciplinarian as Archbishop Laud, stern alike to hi all the statutes when he took his DD (1608) 'because he was called away suddenly on necessary business' We can well believe that Laud then, as always, was busy, but there were other students who got their 'graces' with ood fortune of the brothers Carey fro shortly about to depart froree as a benediction from their Ale Privilege]

One curious developraces' survived in one of thememory[17] William of Wykeham had ordained that his students should perform the whole of the University requireranting of these became so frequent that they were looked upon as the essential part of the systee men were to be exempt from the ordinary tests of the University Hence a Wykeharee with no exae, both under the Laudian Statute and after the great statute of 1800, which set up the modern system of exaeenerate disciples an excuse for idleness

[Sidenote: (3) Examinations]

So far only the qualifications of residence and attendance on lectures have been spoken of The great test of our own times, the examination, has not even been referred to And it must certainly be admitted that the terrors of the modern written exa as took place was always viva voce That the tests were serious, in theory at any rate, ainst bribing exaorous and tremendous examination', the examiner should treat the examinee 'as his own son' Robert de Sorbonne, the founder of the fae at Paris, has even left a sermon in which an elaborate comparison is drawn between university exaement; it need hardly be said that the reater severity of the heavenly test as colects his prescribed book, he will be rejected once, but if he neglect 'the book of conscience, he will be rejected for ever' Such a comparison was not likely to have been made, had not the earthly ordeal possessed terrors at least as great as those that mark its modern successors

[Sidenote: Responsions]

It may be added at once, however, that we hear very little about examinations in old Oxford; but still there were some Then as now the first examination was Responsions, a naes there have been in itsThe University also still retains the time-honoured name of the 'Masters of the Schools' for those who conduct this exah there are now six and not four, as in the thirteenth century), and candidates who pass are still said as of old to have 'responded in Parviso'[18]

In the fifteenth century a man had to be up at least a year before he entered for this examination, in the sixteenth century he could not do so before his ninth term, ie only a little more than a year before he took his BA The exa into residence, and the most patriotic Oxford man would hardly apply to it the enthusiastic praises of the seventeenth-century Vice-Chancellor (1601) who called it 'gloriosum illud et laudabile in parviso certamen, quo antiquitus inclaruit nostra Academia'

[Sidenote: Other examinations]

At the end of four years, as has been said, a man 'determined', ie

perforree of BA, and after this ceres'

to be performed in the additional three years' residence required for a Master's degree Nothing, however, is said of definite examinations as to the intellectual fitness of candidates for the MA Hearne (early in the eighteenth century) quotes from an old book, that the candidate 'must submit hiree, whereunto he desireth to be admitted' But the terror of such a reatly softened by the fact that what is everybody's business is nobody's business

[Sidenote: (4) Character]

The stress laid on the course followed rather than on the final exaree; it sought its qualifications on all sides of a et up and reproduce knowledge Hence it is provided that MAs should admit to 'Determination' (ie to the BA) only those who are 'fit in knowledge and character'; 'if any question arises on other points, eg as to age, stature, or other outward qualifications (_corporum circuents How minute was the inquiry into character can be seen in the case of a certain Robert Sdalen) in 1582, as refused his BA, because he had brought scandalous charges against the fellows of his College, had called an MA 'to his face ”arrant knave”, had been at a disputation in the Divinity School' in the open assembly of Doctors and Masters 'with his hat on his head', and had 'taken the wall of MAs without anyof his hat'

All such es, who are required by statute to see to it that candidates for the degree are 'of good character' (_probis moribus_)

[Sidenote: (5) _Circuitus_]

When a candidate's 'grace' had been obtained there was still another precaution before the degree, whether BA or MA, was actually conferred He had to go bare-headed, in his academical dress, round the 'Schools', preceded by the Bedel of his faculty, and to call on the Vice-Chancellor and two Proctors before sunset; this gave more opportunity to the authorities or to any MA to see whether he was fit

Of this old cerement still remains in the custom that a candidate's name has to be entered in a book at the Vice-Chancellor's house before noon on the day preceding the degree-giving; but this fore Dean, or even by a college servant