,6 UNIVERSITIES, SCHOOLS, STUDENTS. 



merely formed part of their temporary functions. These titles were quite 

 distinct and independent of the scholastic titles, grades, or degrees, which 

 were only to be acquired -by examination. Previously to the thirteenth 

 century, it is certain that there were only two degrees in the University body : 

 that of the students and that of the masters. Anybody who had the amount of 

 knowledge or hardihood to face an audience could open a school, and it is to 

 be remarked that daring often had its reward. Thus Abelard was often 

 taunted with having dubbed himself of his own authority master of theology. 

 Immediately after the foundation of the University there were three 

 degrees which students had to pass in turn. The first, that of bachelor, 

 derived its name indirectly, according to several theologists, from the Latin 

 word baculum (rod, and' so, by extension, any weapon held in the hand), out 

 of allusion to the different exercises which were the prelude to the military 

 education of the young nobility. The first bachelors were the Bachelors of 

 Arts. After having well studied his trivium, the candidate for the bacca- 

 laureat underwent an examination, and had to enter into arguments upon 

 gramma.r, rhetoric, and dialectics. ' These arguments disputes they were 

 called took place at Christmas and during Lent. The candidate, if he 

 came well out of them, obtained the treble privilege, 1st. of wearing the 

 round hat, a mark of his rank ; 2nd. of being present at the masses of the 

 nations ; 3rd. of commencing in the arts, that is to say, of teaching in his 

 turn, under the direction and superintendence of a master. The bachelor, 

 who was at the same time both student and teacher, explained Aristotle's 

 treatises on logic, natural philosophy, metaphysics, and moral philosophy; 

 and when he believed that he had mastered all these subjects, which now 

 seem so far behind us, he applied to the ecclesiastical authorities for a license. 

 The right of conferring this second University degree was at first shared by 

 the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Genevieve, as spiritual sovereigns 

 of the scholastic territory ; but afterwards it was accorded exclusively to the 

 Chancellor of Notre-Dame, as delegate of the bishop. 



The licentiate, as soon as he had been approved of by the Church, again 

 came up before the masters of the Faculty of Arts, to obtain from them the 

 third degree, consisting of the cap and other insignia of the order, which 

 gave him the title of Master of Arts. 



In the higher faculties, so called because the Faculty of Arts served, 

 in a manner, as an introduction to the Faculties of Theologv, Decree, and 



