The institution of an University curriculum, or a set course of books or subjects to be studied by candidates for degrees in the various faculties, may be dated from the statutes given to the University of Paris by the Cardinal Legate, Robert de Courçon, at the very beginning of the thirteenth century. The Oxford curriculum seems to have varied but little between the age of the schoolmen and that of the Renaissance. It is practically certain that admission to the University was guarded by no entrance examination. Grammar was treated as the essential foundation of all knowledge, and the University abounded in grammar schools, but the superstructure raised upon this foundation appears to have been mainly logical. Both grammar and logic, however, represented accomplishments which in that age were supposed to be useful—grammar as giving the power of reading and writing Latin; logic, supplemented by rhetoric, as the instrument of controversy and persuasion. Since proficiency in all studies was tested by disputation, logic was naturally elevated into a position of supremacy. A statute passed in 1408 required all candidates for what is now called a B.A. degree to become ‘sophistæ generales,’ and practise themselves in logical disputations for a year at least in the ‘Parvisum,’ or classrooms for beginners, before offering themselves for the preliminary ordeal of Responsions. This examination seems to have consisted in arguing and answering questions on a given thesis (respondere ad quæstionem or de quæstione), and the student who had passed it at the end of his first year was still bound under this statute to hear lectures on prescribed books in three branches of the Faculty of Arts—logic, mathematics, and grammar, which always ranked lowest in the scale of studies. The exercises which constituted ‘determination’[12] were conducted during Lent in the schools of Masters apparently selected by the candidates themselves, for the last clause in the statute actually protects them against impressment or solicitation by Masters desirous of forcing them into their own schools. The examination was mainly, if not exclusively, logical and grammatical, the duty of the examining master being to stop the candidate if he should wander into other subjects or use unsound arguments. Nothing is said in this statute of candidates once admitted to determine being rejected for incompetence, but there are rules to prevent their being admitted at all, unless duly qualified by character, ability, age, and even stature.
Statute of 1431, regulating ‘inception’
The leading statute which regulated the more important act of ‘inception,’ or admission to the M.A. degree, was passed in 1431. It opens with a somewhat pedantic and solemn preamble, setting forth that everyone who aspires to be entitled a Master or Professor of Arts ought to have undergone a complete training in the seven sciences and the three philosophies. These seven sciences were no other than the old Trivials and Quadrivials which had become the standard subjects of education ever since the revival of learning under Charlemagne—grammar, rhetoric and logic; arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy. The three so-called philosophies were natural, moral, and metaphysical. The statute proceeds to ordain that all who are presented for ‘inception’ shall have satisfied all the requirements for ‘determination,’ and shall also have regularly and earnestly attended lectures in the seven branches of knowledge here called the seven liberal Arts, as well as in the three philosophies, during eight years for at least thirty ‘reading’ days in each year,[13] according to a certain graduated order prescribed in the statute itself. Thus, grammar was to occupy one year, rhetoric three years, logic three years, arithmetic one year, music one year, geometry two years, astronomy two years, natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysical philosophy three years each. The orthodox text-books in which each subject is to be studied are specifically mentioned, and include Priscian, Boethius, and Euclid, but, above all, Aristotle, who is recognised as the supreme authority on rhetoric, logic, and all three philosophies.
Duties of regent masters
Having fulfilled all these conditions, and procured all the necessary certificates of his moral and intellectual competence, the bachelor applying for a M.A. degree was presented before the Chancellor and Proctors in Congregation, when, after taking certain oaths, one of which bound him not to foment quarrels between Northerners and Southerners, he was officially licensed to deliver lectures. On this ceremony, which constituted him a Master of Arts, the statute of 1431 is silent, but we know from other sources that a M.A. degree was chiefly, if not exclusively, sought as a passport to ‘inception.’ This inception, which involved much expense[14] and was attended by many formalities, consisted in taking possession of a school, and solemnly commencing a course of lectures as a teaching or ‘regent’ master. It is provided in the statute that at the end of every term (or year) the proctors shall ascertain the number of regent masters willing to lecture, and shall divide them according to seniority, into ten companies as nearly equal in number as possible. The junior company, with the superintendents of grammar schools, are to lecture in grammar, and the rest are apparently to be so ranged in an ascending scale that the highest subjects may be assigned to the seniors. It is expressly ordained, in order to exclude forbidden lore, that none shall lecture in any books except those allowed by statute. The mode of lecturing is also strictly prescribed. First, the text is to be read out, then its substance and meaning are to be explained; afterwards special passages are to be noted, and lastly, questions are to be raised and discussed, but only such as naturally arise out of the text, so that no prohibited sciences may be taught. Such provisions for public lecturing were necessary before either an University professoriate or a system of college tuition was developed, and all regent masters, unless exempted, were statutably bound to lecture for nearly two years after inception. During this period they were also specially bound to attend the University ‘Congregation,’ by which degrees were granted, and even when they became non-regents they were liable to be summoned for this purpose by the University Bedel, who sounded a bell in order to make a quorum; whence that assembly was technically called the House of Regents and Non-Regents. In the earliest times, when it consisted of teachers only, it had been the sole legislature of the University. It seems, however, that when degrees were more and more sought as titles of honour or certificates of proficiency, and graduates frequently obtained exemptions from the duty of teaching, another more select body, called the ‘Black Congregation,’ assumed the right of discussing measures to be afterwards laid before the ‘Great Congregation,’ as it then came to be called, or ‘Convocation,’ as it was called in later times, when the preliminary assembly had at last usurped the name of ‘Congregation.’
Residence for degrees in the higher faculties
The faculty of Arts, however, was but one of several, though it embraced the great majority of graduates, and maintained an undisputed supremacy. The ‘science’ of grammar always filled a subordinate position, and its requirements were less onerous, but in all the superior faculties of civil or canon law, medicine, and theology, the ordinary rule was to have graduated first in Arts, and afterwards to have responded, disputed, and determined in the studies of the faculty before incepting and receiving the final degree of Master or Doctor, then practically synonymous. Even those who had graduated in Arts were required to study theology five years before their ‘opponency’ or degree-examination, while those who had not so graduated were compelled to go through a seven years’ course; and in either case two years more of probation were exacted before permission could be obtained to lecture on the ‘Sentences.’ Thus an Oxford career occupied far more of life in those days than in our own, and academical residence certainly extended over a greater part of each year. It was a natural consequence that University influences left a far deeper impress on the characters and minds of the students, and that such movements as the Renaissance and the Reformation passed through a long period of academical incubation before they acquired a hold over the mass of the nation.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Huber’s English Universities, vol. 1, ch. vi., sect. 80.
[10] An instance of this may be found in the care taken by Archbishop Chichele, in 1439, to procure a Bull from Pope Eugenius IV. for the foundation of All Souls’ College.