THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE DEGREE CEREMONY
[Sidenote: The Preliminaries of the Degree Ceremony.]
It is needless to describe the requirements of our modern examination
system, for those who present themselves for degrees, and their friends,
know them only too well. And to describe completely the requirements of
the mediaeval or the Laudian University would be to enter into details
which, however interesting, would yet belong to antiquarian history, and
which have no relation to our modern arrangements.
But there are certain broad principles which are common to the present
system and to its predecessors, and which well deserve attention.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: (1) Residence.]
The first and most important of these is that Oxford has always required
from those seeking a degree, as she requires now, 'residence' in the
University for a given time. It is declared in the Proctors' books
(mediaeval statutes used picturesque language), that 'Whereas those who
seek to mount to the highest places by a short cut, neglecting the
steps (_gradibus_) thereto, seem to court a fall, no M.A. should present
a candidate (for the B.A.) unless the person to be presented swear that
he has studied the liberal arts in the Schools, for at least four years
at some proper university'. There was of course a further three years
required of those taking the M.A. degree, and a still longer period for
the higher faculties. Residence, it may be added, was required to be
continuous; the modern arrangement which makes it possible to put in a
term, whenever convenient to the candidate, would have seemed a scandal
to our predecessors. It will be noticed that much more than our modern
'pernoctation' was then required for residence, and that migration from
other universities was more freely permitted than is now the case. This
freedom to study at more than one university is still the rule in
Germany, and Oxford is returning to it in the new statute on Colonial
and Foreign Universities, which excuses members of other bodies who have
complied with certain conditions, from one year of residence, and from
part of our examinations.
[Sidenote: Relaxations of Residence.]
The University in old days, however, was more prepared to relax this
requirement than it is in modern times; the sons of knights and the
eldest sons of esquires[13] were permitted to take a degree after three
years, and 'graces' might be granted conferring still further
exemptions; e.g. a certain G. More was let off with two years only, in
1571, because being 'well born and the only son of his father', he is
afraid that he 'may be called away before he has completed the appointed
time', and so may 'be unable to take his degree conveniently'. The
University is less indulgent now.
[Sidenote: (2) Lectures.]
The old statute quoted above also implies that there were special
lectures to be heard during the four years of residence; some of them
had to be attended twice over. The old Oxford records give careful
directions how the lectures were to be given; the text was to be closely
adhered to and explained, and digressions were forbidden. There are,
however, none of those strict rules as to the punctuality of the
lecturer, the pace at which he was to lecture, &c., which make some of
the mediaeval statutes of other universities so amusing[14].
The list of subjects for a mediaeval degree is too long to be given
here; it may be mentioned, however, that Aristotle, then as always, held
a prominent place in Oxford's Schools.[15] This was common to other
universities, but the weight given 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 members of the college. As there were no 'Professors' in our
sense, the instruction was given by the ordinary Masters of Arts, among
whom those who were of less than two years' standing were compelled to
lecture, and were styled 'necessary regents' (i.e. 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
competition in early days to attract the largest possible audience, but
later on the University enacted that all fees should be pooled and
equally divided among 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 from time immemorial a fixed tariff for 'cutting'[16]
lectures, and there was a further fine of the same amount for failing 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 number of students were solemnly warned
that 'by cutting' 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 them in the fine and not in 'perjury', and after
this apology they seem to have proceeded to their degrees without
further difficulty.
[Sidenote: Graces.]
In fact there was a growing separation after the fifteenth century,
between the formal requirements for the degree, and the actual
University system; sometimes irreconcilable difficulties arose, e.g.
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 himself been excused by the University from the duty of giving
the lecture. In fact the whole system would have been unworkable but for
the power of granting 'graces' 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 himself and to others, was dispensed from observing
all the statutes when he took his D.D. (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 much less excuse. Modern students may well envy the good
fortune of the brothers Carey from Exeter College, who (in 1614) were
dispensed because 'being shortly about to depart from the University,
they desired to take with them the B.A. degree as a benediction from
their Alma Mater, the University'.
[Sidenote: The New College Privilege.]
One curious development of the old system of 'graces' survived in one of
the most prominent of Oxford colleges almost till within living
memory.[17] William of Wykeham had ordained that his students should
perform the whole of the University requirements, and not avail
themselves of dispensations. When the granting of these became so
frequent that they were looked upon as the essential part of the system,
the idea grew up that New College men were to be exempt from the
ordinary tests of the University. Hence a Wykehamist took his degree
with no examination but that of his own college, both under the Laudian
Statute and after the great statute of 1800, which set up the modern
system of examinations. What the founder had intended as an
encouragement for industry was made by his degenerate 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 examinations were unknown in the old
universities; such testing as took place was always viva voce. That the
tests were serious, in theory at any rate, may be fairly inferred from
the frequent statutes at Paris against bribing examiners, and from the
provision at Bologna that at this 'rigorous and tremendous examination',
the examiner should treat the examinee 'as his own son'. Robert de
Sorbonne, the founder of the famous college at Paris, has even left a
sermon in which an elaborate comparison is drawn between university
examinations and the Last Judgement; it need hardly be said that the
moral of the sermon is the greater severity of the heavenly test as
compared with the earthly; if a man neglects 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 name which has survived for at
least 500 years, whatever changes there have been in its meaning. The
University also still retains the time-honoured name of the 'Masters of
the Schools' for those who conduct this examination (though 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, i.e. only a little more than a year before he
took his B.A. The examination is now generally taken before coming 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', i.e.
performed the disputations and other requirements for the degree of
B.A., and after this ceremony there were more 'lectures and disputings'
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 M.A. Hearne (early in
the eighteenth century) quotes from an old book, that the candidate
'must submit himself privately to the examination of everyone of that
degree, whereunto he desireth to be admitted'. But the terror of such a
multiplied test was no doubt greatly 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
examination brings out the great idea underlying the old degree; it
sought its qualifications on all sides of a man's life, and not simply
in his power to get up and reproduce knowledge. Hence it is provided
that M.A.s should admit to 'Determination' (i.e. to the B.A.) only those
who are 'fit in knowledge and character'; 'if any question arises on
other points, e.g. as to age, stature, or other outward qualifications
(_corporum circumstantiis_)', it is reserved for the majority of the
Regents. How minute was the inquiry into character can be seen in the
case of a certain Robert Smith (of Magdalen) in 1582, who was refused
his B.A., because he had brought scandalous charges against the fellows
of his College, had called an M.A. '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 M.A.s
without any moving of his hat'.
All such minute inquiries as these are now left to the colleges, 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 B.A. or M.A., 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 M.A. to see whether he was fit.
Of this old ceremony a bare fragment 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
formality now is usually performed for a man by his college Dean, or
even by a college servant.
[Sidenote: (6) _De positio._]
When the day of the ceremony arrived, solemn testimony was given to the
Proctor of the candidate's fitness by those who 'deposed' for him. In
the case of the B.A., nine Bachelors were required to testify to
fitness; in the case of the M.A., nine Masters had to swear this from
'sure knowledge', and five more 'to the best of their belief' (_de
credulitate_). These depositions were whispered into the ears of the
Proctor by the witnesses kneeling before him. The information was given
on oath, and as it were under the seal of confession; for neither they
nor the Proctors were allowed to reveal it. Of all this picturesque
ceremony nothing is left but the number 'nine'; so many M.A.s at least
must be present, in order that the degree may be rightly given. It is
not infrequent, towards the close of a degree ceremony, for a Dean who
is about to leave, having presented his own men, to be asked to remain
until the proceedings are over, in order to 'make a House'.
The preliminaries, formal or otherwise, to the conferment of degrees
have now been described. Two other points must be here mentioned, in
one of which the University still retains its old custom, in the other
it has departed from it.
[Sidenote: Degrees in Arts required for entrance to the Higher
Faculties.]
The first is the requirement which has always been maintained in Oxford,
that a candidate for one of the higher degrees, e.g. the D.D. or the
D.M., should have first passed through the Arts course, and taken the
ordinary B.A. degree.
This principle, that a general education should precede a special study,
is most important now; it has also a venerable history. It was
established by the University as long ago as the beginning of the
fourteenth century, and was the result of a long struggle against the
Mendicant Friars. This struggle was part of that jealousy between the
Regular and the Secular Clergy, which is so important in the history of
the English Church in mediaeval times.
The University, as identified with the ordinary clergy, steadfastly
resisted the claim of the great preaching orders, the Franciscans and
the Dominicans, to proceed to a degree in Theology without first taking
the Arts course. The case was carried to Rome more than once, and was
decided both for and against the University; but royal favour and
popular feeling were for the Oxford authorities against the Friars, and
the principle was maintained then, and, as has been said, has been
maintained always.
[Sidenote: The M.A. becomes a form.]
In the other point there has been a great departure from old usage. The
original degree course involved seven years' residence for those who
wished to become Masters. Even before the Reformation, the number of
those who took the degree was comparatively small, although the
candidate at entrance was often only thirteen years old or even younger;
and with the improvement of the schools of the country in the sixteenth
century, the need of such prolonged residence became less, as candidates
were better prepared before they came up. Since the old arrangements
were clearly unworkable, different universities have modified them in
various ways; in Scotland the Baccalaureate has disappeared altogether,
and the undergraduate passes straight to his M.A.; in France the degree
of _bachelier_ is the lowest of university qualifications, and more
nearly resembles our Matriculation than anything else; in Germany the
Doctorate is the reward of undergraduate studies, although it need
hardly be said that those studies are on different lines from those of
our own undergraduates. In England the old names have both been
maintained (the English, like the Romans, are essentially conservative),
but their meaning has been entirely altered.
We can trace in the Elizabethan and the Stuart periods the gradual
modification of the old requirements for the residence of M.A.s, by
means of dispensations. This was done in two ways. Sometimes the actual
time required was shortened, because a man was poor, because he could
get clerical promotion if he were an M.A., or even by a general 'grace'
in order to increase the number of those taking the degree. If only a
small number incepted it was thought a reflection on Oxford, and there
were always Cambridge spectators at hand to note it. And as the Proctors
were largely paid by the degree fees, they had an obvious interest in
increasing the number of M.A.s.
But it was more frequent to retain the length of time, but to dispense
with actual residence; special reasons for this, e.g. clerical duties,
travel, lawsuits, are at first given, but it gradually became the normal
procedure, and residence ceased to be required after the B.A. degree had
been taken. The Master's term was retained _pro forma_ till within the
recollection of graduates still living (it will be remembered that Mr.
Hughes makes 'Tom Brown' return to keep it, a sadder and a wiser man);
but even that form has now disappeared, and the Oxford M.A. qualifies
for his degree only by continuing to live and by paying fees. It may be
added at once that the maintenance of the form is essential to the
finance of the University; the M.A. fees alone, apart from the dues paid
in the interval between taking the B.A. and the M.A., amount to some
L6,000 a year, and considering how little the ordinary man pays as an
undergraduate to the University, the payment of the M.A. is one that is
fully due; it should be regarded by all Oxford men as an expression of
the gratitude to their Alma Mater, which they are in duty bound to show.
The future of Oxford finance would be brighter if some reformer could
devise means by which the relation of the M.A. to his University might
become more of a reality, so that he might realize his obligations to
her. The doctrine of Walter de Merton that a foundation should benefit
by the 'happy fortune' (_uberiore fortuna_) of its sons in subsequent
life, is one that sadly needs emphasizing in Oxford.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 13: This custom has left its trace in our matriculation
arrangements. Candidates are still required to state the rank of their
father, and their position in the family, though birth and primogeniture
no longer carry any privileges with them at Oxford.]
[Footnote 14: The University authorities at Paris and elsewhere had a
great objection to dictating lectures; on the other hand the mediaeval
undergraduate, like his modern successor, loved to 'get something down',
and was wont to protest forcibly against a lecturer who went too fast,
by hissing, shouting, or even organized stone-throwing.]
[Footnote 15: It is amusing to notice that the irreducible minimum of
the _Ethics_ at Paris in the fourteenth century consists of the same
first four books that are still almost universally taken up at Oxford
for the pass degree (i.e. in the familiar 'Group A. I').]
[Footnote 16: It was only _2d._, a sum which has been immortalized by
Samuel Johnson's famous retort on his tutor: 'Sir, you have sconced me
_2d._ for non-attendance at a lecture not worth a penny.']
[Footnote 17: It was resigned voluntarily by New College in 1834; but
the distinction is still observed (or should be) that a Fellow of the
College needs no grace for his degree, or if one is asked, 'demands' it
as a right (_postulat_ is used instead of the usual _supplicat_). I have
adopted Dr. Rashdall's explanation of the origin of this strange
privilege. It is curious to add that King's College, Cambridge, copied
it, along with other and better features, from its great predecessor and
model, New College.]
[Footnote 18: i.e. in the Parvis or Porch of St. Mary's, where the
disputations on Logic and Grammar, which formed the examination, took
place: this was probably a room over the actual entrance, such as was
common in mediaeval churches; there is a small example of one still to
be seen in Oxford, over the south porch of St. Mary Magdalen Church.]