Chapter 11

The successful candidate ordinarily proceeded within a short time to the public examination, which was held in the cathedral. At this examination he received both the formal license to teach and the Doctor's degree. Before the appointed day he went about inviting friends and public officials to the ceremony. Ostentation at this time was forbidden:

Those who are candidates for the Doctor's degree, when they give their invitations to the public examination, should go without trumpets or any instruments whatever; and the Beadle of the Arch-deacon of Bologna, with the Beadles of the Doctors under whom they are to have the public examination, should precede him on horseback. At that late day they [the candidates] shall not provide any feast, except among scholars from the same house or among those related to the candidate in the first, second, third, or even the fourth degree. Furthermore no one of the Rectors shall presume to ride with him on that day.[64]

On the actual day of the examination, however, "the love of pageantry characteristic of the mediaeval and especially of the Italian mind was allowed the amplest gratification"; the candidate went to the cathedral, doubtless preceded by trumpeters, and escorted by a procession of his fellow-students. The statutes of the German Nation at Bologna describe as one object of that organization "the clustering about, attendance upon, and crowding around our Doctors-to-be, in season and out of season." Moreover, "the Scholars of our Nation shall individually accompany the one who is to be made Doctor, to the place where the insignia [of the degree] are usually bestowed, if he so wishes, or has so requested of the Proctor [of the Nation]. Also, they shall escort him with a large accompanying crowd from the aforesaid place to his own house, under penalty of one Bologna shilling."[65]

The University statutes are to the same effect, but they prohibit horse-play, and the extravagance of tournaments. "Ultramontane" scholars are those from north, "Cismontane," those from south, of the Alps.

Moreover, the ultramontane scholars shall accompany the ultramontane candidate, and the cismontane, the cismontane, from their dwelling places to Saint Peter's when they go there to take the public examination, and at that time hay and straw shall not be placed [on the floor of] the church. Furthermore all the ultra-and cis-montanes shall be present at the public examination, and all shall afterwards accompany the new Doctor from the church to his house under penalty of ten Bologna shillings, which it shall be the duty of the Rector to exact within eight days. And no scholar at the public examination of any citizen or foreign scholar shall be dressed for a dance or a brawl or a tournament, nor shall he joust as a knight. If any one disobey, he shall incur the penalty of perjury and ten Bologna pounds, and if he does not pay this within ten days on the demand of any Rector he shall be deprived of the advantage and honor of our University. And we impose the penalty of perjury also upon the Rector of the student who is to take the public examination, and this penalty he shall incur from the very fact that he should by all means exact from the candidate an oath that on the day on which he rides about to give invitations for the public examination which he is to take, he will not bring about any jousting or brawling as some have done heretofore. And if the candidate, when required, is unwilling to take the oath, or if he takes the oath and breaks it, he [the Rector] shall utterly forbid the public examination and direct the Doctors not to hold their meeting and also stop the Beadle, so that he shall not dare to announce his programme through the schools, under an arbitrary penalty to be imposed.[66]

The ceremony at the cathedral included, first, the formal test of the candidate. After making a speech he held a disputation, in which he defended a thesis taken from the Laws against opponents chosen from the body of students, "thus playing for the first time the part of a Doctor in a University disputation." He was then presented by the Promoter to the Archdeacon, who conferred the final License to teach Civil or Canon Law or both, according to the student's training. This was done by a formula probably similar to the following, which is taken from a book published in 1710:

Inasmuch as you have been presented to me for examination in both [Civil and Canon] Laws and for the customary approval, by the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent D.D. (naming the Promoters), golden Knights, Counts Palatine, Most Celebrated Doctors, and inasmuch as you have since undergone an arduous and rigorous examination, in which you bore yourself with so much learning and distinction that that body of Most Illustrious and Excellent Promoters without one dissenting voice,--I repeat, without one dissenting voice,--have judged you worthy of the laurel, therefore by the authority which I have as Archdeacon and senior Chancellor, I create, publish, and name you, N.N., Doctor in the aforesaid Faculties, giving to you every privilege of lecturing, of ascending the Master's chair, of writing glosses, of interpreting, of acting as Advocate, and of exercising also the functions of a Doctor here and everywhere throughout the world; furthermore, of enjoying all those privileges which those happy individuals, who have been so deserving in these fostering colleges, are accustomed to use and enjoy.

And I trust that all these things will forever result in the increase of your fame and the honor of our Colleges, to the praise and glory of Almighty God and of the ever blessed Virgin Mary.[67]

"In pursuance of the license thus conferred, he was then invested by the Promoter with the _insignia_ of the teaching office, [the chair, the book, the ring, the cap,] each, no doubt, with some appropriate formula. He was seated in the Magisterial chair or _cathedra_. He was handed the open book--one of the Law texts which it was his function to expound. A gold ring was placed upon his finger, either in token of his espousal to Science or in indication of the Doctor's claim to be the equal of Knights; and the Magisterial _biretta_ placed upon his head: after which the Promotor left him with a paternal embrace, a kiss, and a benediction."[68] Then followed the triumphal procession homeward through the town, "preceded by the three University pipers and the four University trumpeters."

(d) _A Day's Work at Louvain in_ 1476

Documents which describe the day's work of a mediaeval student are not common. A Ducal ordinance for the University of Louvain in 1476 indicates the way in which the student was supposed to work at that institution.

The tutors shall see that the scholars rise in the morning at five o'clock, and that then before lectures each one reads by himself the laws which are to be read at the regular lecture, together with the glosses.... But after the regular lecture, having if they wish, quickly heard mass, the scholars shall come to their rooms and revise the lectures that have been given, by rehearsing and impressing on their memory whatever they have brought away from the lectures either orally or in writing. And next they shall come to lunch ...after lunch, each one having brought to the table his books, all the scholars of the Faculty together, in the presence of a tutor, shall review that regular lecture; and in this review the tutor shall follow a method which will enable him, by discreet questioning of every man, to gather whether each of them listened well to the lecture and remembered it, and which will recall the whole lecture by having its parts recited by individuals. And if watchful care is used in this one hour will suffice.[69]

(e) _Time-table of Lectures at Leipzig_, 1519

There must have been some orderly arrangement of each day's lectures as the requirements for the various degrees became fixed; but I have not found an early document on the subject. The Statutes of Leipzig for 1519 give "an accurate arrangement of the lectures of the Faculty of Fine Arts, hour by hour, adapted to a variety of intellects and to diverse interests." They do not always specify the semester in which the book is to be read; in such cases the title is placed in the center of the column. The list includes practically all the books required for the degrees of A.B. and A.M. Unless otherwise specified, they are the works of Aristotle; but the versions are, as noted on page 48, new translations from the Greek. These translations are praised in no uncertain terms in the Statutes. The Metaphysic is presented in Latin by Bessarion "so cleverly and with so good faith that he will seem to differ not even a nail's breadth from the Greek copies and sentiments of Aristotle." The Ethics and the Economics are "cleverly and charmingly put into Latin by Argyropulos;" the Politics and the Magna Moralia are "finely translated by Georgius Valla, that well-known man of great learning," etc. Lectures, it will be noted, began early. The following tabular view is compiled from Zarncke, _Statutenbücher der Universität Leipzig_, pp. 39-42.

In addition to the "ordinary," or prescribed, books, "two books of Cicero's Letters will be read on festal days"; and "the Greek Grammar of Theodorus Gaza will be explained at the expense of the illustrious Prince George."

SUMMER | WINTER | SUMMER | WINTER | | | 6 A.M. | 1 P.M. | Metaphysics. |Metaphysics. |Posterior |Topics (4 Bks.) Introduction |On | Analytics. |Generation and (Porphyry). | Interpretation |Sense and | Destruction. Categories. |Logic (Aquinas). | Sensation. |Being and | |Memory and | Essence On Six Principles (Gilbert de la | Recollection. | (Aquinas). Porrée). |Sleep and Waking.| Physics (Digest of Aristotle by |Longevity and | Albertus Magnus). | Shortlivedness.| -----------------------------------| | 8 A.M. |Institutes of Oratory | (Quintilian). Physical Hearing (sic.) Physics? |---------------------------------- Reading and Disputation by | 2 P.M. candidates for A.B. and A.M. | Grammar (Priscian). |On the Soul (3 |On the Heavens -----------------------------------| Bks). | and the Earth. 11 A.M. |Common |On the Substance | Arithmetic, and| of the World Logic: Summulae (Petrus Hispanus). | On the Sphere | (Averroes). | | (Sacrobosco). |Common Rhetoric (Cicero |On the Orator | | Perspective, to Herennius). | (Cicero). | | i.e., Optics Physical |On the Vital | | (John of Auscultation | Principle | | Pisa). (Themistius). | (Themistius). |Theory of the Planets (Gerard of | | Cremona). | Ethics | Politics. | Economics. |Magna Moralia, _i.e._, | Ethics, abbreviated from | Aristotle and Eudemus. |---------------------------------- | 4 P.M. | |Theocritus. |Herodotus. |Virgil. |Aristotle, Problems.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 57: Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. Brewer, I, pp. 45-47.]

[Footnote 58: Quoted by Rashdall, I, p. 219.]

[Footnote 59: Malagola, _Statuti delle Università i dei Collegi dello Studio Bolognese._ Selections from pp. 41-43.]

[Footnote 60: Bulaeus, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, IV, 332.]

[Footnote 61: Dante, _Quaestio de Aqua et Terra_, tr. A.C. White, pp. VII-IX.]

[Footnote 62: Document printed by Rashdall, II, Pt. II, pp. 742-3.]

[Footnote 63: Rashdall, I, p. 226.]

[Footnote 64: Malagola, _Statuti_, etc., p. 116.]

[Footnote 65: _Acta Nationis Germanicae_, pp. 4, 8.]

[Footnote 66: Malagola, _Statuti_, etc., p. 116.]

[Footnote 67: Document printed by Rashdall, II, Pt. II, p. 734.]

[Footnote 68: Rashdall, I, p. 229.]

[Footnote 69: Document printed by Rashdall, Vol. II, Pt. II, p. 766.]

V

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREES IN ARTS

In general, the candidate for the A.B. degree must have taken part as "respondent" or "opponent" (see p. 115) in a prescribed number of disputations, and must have "heard" the lectures on certain prescribed books before taking his examination for the degree. (This examination seems, in some cases, to have been little more than a certification by a committee of Masters that the student had fulfilled the foregoing requirements.) The candidate for the degree of A.M. must have completed further prescribed books and disputations, and must have "read," i.e., lectured upon, some book or books which he had previously "heard," before taking his examination for the License (to teach everywhere). No general statement can be given as to the required number of disputations; the practice differed at various times and places. The Statutes of Leipzig required during the fifteenth century six "ordinary" and six "extraordinary" responses from the prospective Bachelor. The prospective Master was required to declare that he had been present at thirty ordinary Bachelors' disputations, and had argued in each one "if he had been able to get the opportunity to argue." The candidate for the License at Paris, in 1366, must have attended disputations throughout one "grand Ordinary," and must have "responded" twice. At Oxford the youth must have taken part in disputations for a year as "general sophister," and must have "responded" at least once, before taking the A.B. or before "Determination," which was the equivalent of the A.B. Prospective masters must have responded at least twice.[70]

The following lists of prescribed books give a good idea of mediaeval requirements (aside from disputations) for the degrees of A.B. and A.M., at various times and places. The reader will note at once the predominance of Aristotle, and the variations in requirements for the degrees. Many similar lists might be cited from the records of other universities; but they would give little additional information as regards the degrees in Arts.

1. List of Books Prescribed for the Degrees of A.B. and A.M. at Paris, 1254.

The following list from the Statutes of 1254 does not separate the books into the groups required for each degree, but indicates the total requirement for both.

{Introduction to the Categories of Aristotle { (Isagoge), Porphyry. (1) The "Old" Logic {Categories, and On Interpretation, { Aristotle. {Divisions, and Topics except Bk. IV, { Boethius.

{Prior and Posterior Analytics, Aristotle. (2) The "New" Logic {Sophistical Refutations, " {Topics, "

(3) Moral Philosophy: Ethics, 4 Bks., " {Physics, Aristotle. {On the Heavens and the Earth, " {Meteorics, " {On Animals, " {" the Soul, " (4) Natural Philosophy {" Generation, " {" Sense and Sensible Things, " {" Sleep and Waking, " {" Memory and Recollection, " {" Life and Death, " {" Plants, " (?)

(5) Metaphysics: Metaphysics, "

{On the Six Principles, Gilbert de la Porrée {Barbarismus (Bk. 3, Larger Grammar), { Donatus. (6) Other Books {Grammar (Major and Minor), Priscian. {On Causes, Costa Ben Luca. {On the Differences of Spirit and Soul { (another translation of On Causes).[71]

An interesting part of the Statute of 1254 relates to the length of time to be given to the various books, or groups of books, prescribed. The entire Old Logic is to be read in about six months (October 1-March 25); the New Logic and Priscian's Grammar in the same length of time; the Physics, the Metaphysics and On Animals, together, in somewhat more than eight months (October 1-June 25); the four books of the Ethics, alone, in six weeks; On Life and Death is to be completed in one week, and several of the other treatises in the same group are to be read in periods varying from two to five weeks. Knowledge of these facts renders the list as a whole considerably less imposing than it might otherwise appear.

2. Books required at Paris in 1366. In this and all the following examples the books are by Aristotle unless otherwise specified.

For the A.B.: (1) Grammar: Doctrinale, Alexander da Villa Dei. (2) Logic: The Old and the New Logic, as above. (3) Natural Philosophy: On the Soul.

For the License to teach everywhere: (1) Natural Philosophy: Physics; On the Heavens and the Earth; On Generation and Corruption; Parva Naturalia (see p. 143); On Mechanics. (2) Mathematics: "Some books"; probably the treatises required at Leipzig in 1410. (See p. 140). (3) Politics. (4) Rhetoric.

For the A.M.: (1) Ethics. (2) Meteorics (3 Bks.).[72]

3. Books required at Oxford, 1267: For the A.B. (Determination):

(1) Logic: The Old and the New Logic (see p. 140), and On the Six Principles. (2) Either Grammar (selections from Donatus and Priscian), or Natural Philosophy (Physics, On the Soul, and On Generation and Corruption).[73]

For the A.B. in (?) 1408. (1) Logic: The Old and the New Logic in "cursory," or extraordinary, lectures, given by Bachelors; Introduction, Porphyry: On the Six Principles, Gilbert de la Porrée; Sophistical Refutations. (2) Grammar; Barbarismus, Donatus. (3) Mathematics: Arithmetic; Computus ecclesiasticus (Method of finding Easter); On the Sphere, Sacrobosco.[74]

4. Books required at Leipzig for the Degree of A.B. in 1410.[75]

(1) Grammar; Priscian (the last two books). [2 months.] {Tractatus (Summulae), Petrus Hispanus. [2-1/2-3 months.] (2) Logic {The "Old" Logic (see Paris, 1254). [3-4 months.] {The "New" " except Topics. [6-1/2-7 months.] (3) Nat'l Philosophy {Physics. [6-9 months.] {On the Soul. [7 weeks-2 months.] (4) Mathematics; On the Material Sphere (Sacrobosco). [5-6 weeks.]

5. Books required at Leipzig for the Degree of A.M. in 1410.

(1) Logic {Logic of Heytisbury. {Topics, Aristotle. [3-4 months.] (2) Moral and {Ethics. [6-9 " ] Practical {Politics. [4-9 " ] Philosophy {Economics. [3 weeks.] {On the Heavens and the Earth. [3-1/2-4 { months.] {On Generation and Destruction. [7 { weeks-2 months.] (3) Natural Philosophy {Meteorics. [3-1/2-4 months.] {Parva Naturalia (i.e., the books on { Sense and Sensible Things, Sleep and { Waking, Memory and Recollection, { Longevity and Shortlivedness). [2-1/2-3 { months.] (4) Metaphysics: Metaphysics. [5-9 months.] {Astronomy: Theory of the Planets { (Gerard of Cremona). [5-6 weeks.] {Geometry: Euclid. [5-9 months.] {Arithmetic: Common Arithmetic (Sacrobosco). (5) Mathematics { [3 weeks-1 month.] {Music: Music (John de Muris). [3 { weeks-1 month.] {Optics: Common Perspective (John { of Pisa). [3-3-1/2 months.][76]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 70: Statutes of 1431.]

[Footnote 71: _Chart. Univ. Paris._, I, No. 246.]

[Footnote 72: Rashdall, I, p. 436.]

[Footnote 73: _Munimenta Acad. Oxon.,_ I, pp. 35-36.]

[Footnote 74: _Munimenta Acad. Oxon._, I, pp. 242-243.]

[Footnote 75: The figures in brackets indicate the time to be given to each book, or group of books. The data are from Zarncke, _Statutenbücher der Univ. Leipzig._, 311-312.]

[Footnote 76: For the requirements in 1519 see p. 134.]

VI

ACADEMIC LETTERS

1. LETTERS RELATING TO PARIS

(a) _A Twelfth-Century Critic_

The pessimist who laments the decay of education, and who feels that its golden age was the time in which he received his own training, or earlier, is a perennial figure in the history of education. The following letter has a surprisingly modern ring. Denifle (p. 747) thinks that Stephen was unable to reconcile himself to the new movement at Paris because of his monastic training. Stephen's view, however, "was not wholly wrong." Compare the letter of Peter de la Celle to John of Salisbury, page 144.

"Stephen [Bishop] of Tournai, in his letters directed to the Pope, laments the ruin of the study of sacred literature, of Canon Law and the Arts, and, blaming the professors, implores the hand of Apostolic correction." (1192-1203.)

To the Pope. Beseeching his pardon, we would speak to our sovereign Pontiff, whose kindness stimulates our boldness, whose knowledge supports our ignorance, whose patience assures indulgence. The authority of our forefathers first impels us, then the disease which is insinuating itself, and which will in the end be irremediable if its evil influence be not checked at the beginning. Nor do we say this, Father, as though we wish to be either censors of morals, or judges of the doctors, or debaters of doctrines. This burden requires stronger shoulders and this fight calls for the vigorous arms of spiritual athletes. We wish only to point out this distress to your sacred Fatherhood, on whom God has conferred the power of checking error and the knowledge of how to correct it.