Until less than a century ago the form of the method of qualifying for a degree remained substantially unaltered, but the subject-matter of the [255] ]discussions varied from time to time with the prevalent studies of the place.
After the renaissance some of the statutable exercises were “huddled,” that is, were reduced to a mere form. To huddle an act, the proctor generally asked some question such as Quid est nomen? to which the answer usually expected was Nescio. In these exercises considerable license was allowed, particularly if there were any play on the words involved. For example, J. Brass, of Trinity, was accosted with the question, Quid est aes? to which he answered, Nescio nisi finis examinationis. It should be added that retorts such as these were only allowed in the pretence exercises, and a candidate who in the actual examination was asked to give a definition of happiness and replied, “An exemption from Payne”—that being the name of his questioner—was plucked for want of discrimination in time and place. In earlier years even the farce of huddling seems to have been unnecessary, for it was said in 1675 that it was not uncommon for the proctors to take “cautions for the performance of the statutable exercises, and accept the forfeit of the money so deposited in lieu of their performance.”
In medieval times acts had been usually kept on some scholastic question or on a proposition taken from the Sentences. About the end of the fifteenth [256] ]century religious questions, such as the interpretation of biblical texts, began to be introduced. Some fifty or sixty years later the favourite subjects were drawn either from dogmatic theology or from philosophy. In the seventeenth century the questions were usually philosophical, but in the eighteenth century, under the influence of the Newtonian school, a large proportion of them were mathematical.
Further details about these exercises and specimens of acts kept in the eighteenth century are given in my History of Mathematics at Cambridge. Here I will only say that they provided an admirable training in the art of presenting an argument, and in dialectical skill in attack and defence. The mental strain involved in keeping a contested act was severe. De Morgan, describing his act kept in 1826, wrote[35]:
I was badgered for two hours with arguments given and answered in Latin—or what we call Latin—against Newton’s first section, Lagrange’s derived functions, and Locke on innate principles. And though I took off everything, and was pronounced by the moderator to have disputed magno honore, I never had such a strain of thought in my life. For the inferior opponents were made as sharp as their betters by their tutors, who kept lists of queer objections drawn from all quarters.
Had the language of the discussions been changed to English, as was repeatedly urged from 1774 [257] ]onwards, these exercises might have been retained with advantage, but the barbarous Latin and the syllogistic form in which they were carried on prejudiced their retention.
About 1830 a custom arose for the respondent and opponents to meet previously and arrange their arguments together. The discussions then became an elaborate farce, and were a mere public performance of what had been already rehearsed. Accordingly the moderators of 1839 took the responsibility of abandoning them. This action was singularly high-handed, since a report of 30 May 1838, had recommended that they should be continued, and there was no reason why they should not have been reformed and retained as a useful feature in the scheme of study.
On the result of the acts, a list of those qualified to receive degrees was drawn up. This list was not arranged strictly in order of merit, because the proctors could insert names anywhere in it, but by the beginning of the eighteenth century this power had become restricted to the right reserved to the vice-chancellor, the senior regent, and each proctor to place in the list one candidate anywhere he liked—a right which continued to exist till 1828, though it was not exercised after 1792. Except for the names of these “honorary optimes,” this final list was, until 1752, arranged in order of merit into [258] ]wranglers and senior optimes, junior optimes, and poll-men; after 1752, the wranglers and senior optimes were placed in separate classes. The bachelors on admission to their degrees took seniority according to their order on this list. The title wrangler is derived from these contentious discussions; the title optime from the customary compliment given by the moderator to a successful disputant, Domine ..., optime disputasti, or even optime quidem disputasti, and the title of poll-man from the description of this class as οἱ πολλοί.
The final exercises for the bachelor of arts degree were never huddled, and until 1839 were carried out strictly. University officials were responsible for approving the subject-matter of these acts. Stupid men offered some irrefutable truism, but the ambitious student courted reputation by affirming some paradox. Probably all honour men kept acts, but poll-men were deemed to comply with the regulations by keeping opponencies. The proctors were responsible for presiding at these acts, or seeing that competent graduates did so. In and after 1649 two examiners were specially appointed for this purpose. In 1680[36] these examiners were appointed by the senate with the title of moderator, and with the joint stipend of four shillings for everyone graduating as a bachelor of arts during their year of office. [259] ]In 1688 the joint stipend of the moderators was fixed at £40 a year. The moderators, like the proctors, were nominated by the colleges in rotation.
From the earliest times the proctors had the power of questioning a candidate at the end of a disputation, and probably all candidates for a degree attended the public schools on certain days to give an opportunity to the proctors (or any master who liked to take part in the examination) to examine them[37], though the opportunity was not always used. Such examinations were conducted in Latin, and originally different candidates attended on different days. Soon after 1710[38] the moderators or proctors began the custom of summoning on one day in January all candidates whom they proposed to question, and conducting the examination in English and in public: the examination did not last more than one day, and was partly on philosophy and partly on mathematics. It was from this examination that the Mathematical Tripos developed.