In addition to the lecturing of the M.A.s and the endowed university lectureships, the university held exercises every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in which the student was meant through disputation, to apply the formal precepts in logic and rhetoric to the practical business of public speaking and debate. Final examinations were still by disputation. The students came to learn to read Latin easily. Students acted in Latin plays. If a student went to a tavern, he could be flogged. For too elaborate clothing, he could be fined. Fines for absence from class were imposed. However, from this time until 1945, a young man's university days were regarded as a period for the "sowing of wild oats".
All students had to reside in a college or hall, subscribe to the 39 articles of the university, the Queen's supremacy, and the prayer book. Meals were taken together in the college halls. The universities were divided into three tables: a fellows' table of earls, barons, gentlemen, and doctors; a second table of masters of arts, bachelors, and eminent citizens, and a third table of people of low condition. Professors, doctors, masters of arts and students were all distinguishable by their gowns.
Undergraduate education was considered to be for the purpose of good living as well as good learning. It was to affect the body, mind, manners, sentiment, and business, instead of just leading to becoming a better disputant. The emphasis on manners came mostly from an Italian influence. The university curriculum included Latin and Greek languages and was for four years. The student spent at least one year on logic (syllogizing, induction, deduction, fallacies, and the application of logic to other studies), at least one year on rhetoric, and at least one year on philosophy. The latter included physics, metaphysics, history, law, moral and political philosophy, modern languages, and ethics (domestic principles of government, military history, diplomatic history, and public principles of government), and mathematics (arithmetic, geometry, algebra, music, optics, astronomy). The astronomy taught was that of Ptolemy, whose view was that the celestial bodies revolved around a spherical earth, on which he had laid out lines of longitude and latitude. There were lectures on Greek and Latin literature, including Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero. There were no courses on English history in the universities.
About 1564, the curriculum was changed to two terms of grammar, four terms of rhetoric, five terms of dialectic (examining ideas and opinions logically, e.g. ascertaining truth by analyzing words in their context and equivocations), three terms of arithmetic, and two terms of music. There were now negative numbers, irrational numbers such as square roots of non-integers, and imaginary numbers such as square roots of negative numbers. The circumference and area of a circle could be computed from its radius, and the Pythagorean theorem related the three sides of a right triangle. Also available were astrology, alchemy (making various substances such as acids and alcohols), cultivation of gardens, and breeding of stock, especially dogs and horses. Astronomy, geometry, natural and moral philosophy, and metaphysics were necessary for a master's degree. The university libraries of theological manuscripts in Latin were supplemented with many non-religious books.
There were graduate studies in theology, medicine, music, and law, which was a merging of civil and canon law together with preparatory work for studying common law at the Inns of Court in London.
In London, legal training was given at the four Inns of Court. Students were called to dinner by a horn. Only young gentry were admitted there. A year's residence there after university gave a gentleman's son enough law to decide disputes of tenants on family estates or to act as Justice of the Peace in his home county. A full legal education gave him the ability to handle all family legal matters, including property matters. Many later became Justices of the Peace or members of Parliament. Students spent two years in the clerks' commons, and two in the masters' commons. Besides reading textbooks in Latin, the students observed at court and did work for practicing attorneys. After about four more years' apprenticeship, a student could be called to the outer bar. There was a real bar of iron or wood separating the justices from the attorneys and litigants. As "Utter Barrister" or attorney, he would swear to "do no falsehood in the court, increase no fees but be contented with the old fees accustomed, delay no man for lucre or malice, but use myself in the office of an Attorney within the Court according to my learning and discretion, so help me God, Amen". Students often also studied and attended lectures on astronomy, geography, history, mathematics, theology, music, navigation, foreign languages, and lectures on anatomy and medicine sponsored by the College of Physicians. A tour of the continent became a part of every gentleman's education. After about eight years' experience, attorneys could become Readers, who gave lecturess; or Benchers, who made the rules. Benchers, who were elected by other Benchers, were entrusted with the government of their Inn of Court, and usually were King's counsel. Five to ten years later, a few of these were picked by the Queen for Serjeant at Law, and therefore eligible to plead at the bar of common pleas. Justices were chosen from the Serjeants at Law.
Gresham left the Royal exchange to the city and the Mercer's Company on condition that they use some of its profits to appoint and pay seven lecturers in law, rhetoric, divinity, music, physics, geometry, and astronomy to teach at his mansion, which was called Gresham College. They were installed in 1598 according to his Will. Their lectures were free, open to all, and often in English. They embraced mathematics and new scientific ideas and emphasized their practical applications. A tradition of research and teaching was established in mathematics and astronomy.
There were language schools teaching French, Italian, and Spanish to the aspiring merchant and to gentlemen's sons and daughters.
Many people kept diaries. Letter writing was frequent at court. Most forms of English literature were now available in print. Many ladies read aloud to each other in reading circles and to their households. Some wrote poetry and did translations. Correctness of spelling was beginning to be developed. Printers tended to standardize it. There was much reading of romances, jest books, histories, plays, prayer collections, and encyclopedias, as well as the Bible. In schools and gentry households, favorite reading was Edmund Spenser's "Faerie Queen" about moral virtues and the faults and errors which beset them; Erasmus' New Testament, "Paraphrases", "Colloquies", and "Adages"; Sir Thomas North's edition of Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans"; Elyot's "The Book Named the Governor"; and Hoby's translation of "The Courtier". Gentlemen read books on the ideals of gentlemanly conduct, such as "Institucion of a Gentleman" (1555), and Laurence Humphrey's "The Nobles: or of Nobilites". Francis Bacon's "Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral" were popular for their wisdom. In them he commented on many subjects from marriage to atheism. He cautioned against unworthy authority, mass opinion, custom, and ostentation of apparent wisdom. He urged the use of words with their correct meaning.
At a more popular level were Caxton's "The Golden Legend", Baldwin's "Mirror for Magistrates", Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" about English Protestant who suffered at the stake, sensational stories and pamphlets, printed sermons (including those of Switzerland's Calvin), chronicles, travel books, almanacs, herbals, and medical works. English fiction began and was read. There were some books for children. Books were copyrighted, although non-gentlemen writers needed a patron. At the lowest level of literacy were ballads. Next to sermons, the printing press was kept busiest with rhymed ballads about current events. Printed broadsheets on political issues could be distributed quickly. In London, news was brought to the Governor of the News Staple, who classified it as authentic, apocryphal, barber's news, tailor's news, etc. and stamped it. Books were also censored for matter against the state church. This was carried out through the Stationers' Company. This company was now, by charter, the official authority over the entire book trade, with almost sole rights of printing. (Schools had rights of printing). It could burn other books and imprison their printers.