CHAPTER VIII. THE ORGANIZATION AND SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION1. SECTION 1. SECTION 2. The mediaeval system of education. The period of transition. The system of education under the Elizabethan statutes. In the preceding chapters I have enumerated most of the eminent mathematicians educated at Cambridge, and have indicated the lines on which the study of mathematics developed. I propose now to consider very briefly the kind of instruction provided by the university, and the means adopted for testing the proficiency of students. Until 1858 the chief statutable exercises for a degree were the public maintenance of a thesis or proposition in the schools 1 In writing this chapter I have mainly relied on Observations on the statutes of the university of Cambridge by G. Peacock, London, 1841, and on the University of Cambridge by J. Bass Mullinger, 2 volumes, Cambridge, 1873 and 1884. The most complete collection of documents referring to Cambridge is that contained in the Annals of Cambridge by C. H. Cooper, 5 volumes, Cambridge, 1842-52; but the collection of Documents relating to the university and colleges of Cambridge, issued by the Royal Commissioners in 1852, is for many purposes more useful. The Statuta antiqua are printed at the beginning of the edition of the statutes issued at Cambridge in 1785, and are reprinted in the Documents. It would seem from the Munimenta academica by Henry Anstey in the Rolls Series, London, 1848, that the customs at Oxford only differed in small details from those at Cambridge, and the regulations of either university may be used to illustrate contemporary student life at the other: but migration between them was so common that it would have been strange if it had been otherwise. against certain opponents, and the opposition of a proposition laid down by some other student. Every candidate for a degree had to take part in a certain number of these discussions. The subject-matter of these " "acts" varied at different times. In the course of the eighteenth century it became the custom at Cambridge to "keep" some or all of them on mathematical questions, and I had at first intended to confine myself to reproducing one of the disputations kept in that century. But as the whole medieval system of education-teaching and examining―rested on the performance of similar exercises, and as our existing system is derived from that without any break of continuity, I thought it might be interesting to some of my readers if I gave in this chapter a sketch of the course of studies, the means of instruction, and the tests imposed on students in earlier times; leaving the special details of a mathematical act to another chapter. It will therefore be understood that I am here only indirectly concerned with the history of the development of mathematical studies. I also defer to a subsequent chapter the description of the origin and history of the mathematical tripos. I will only here remark that the university was not obliged to grant a degree to any one who performed the statutable exercises, and after the middle of the eighteenth century the university in general refused to pass a supplicat for the B.A. degree unless the candidate had also presented himself for the senate-house examination. That examination had its origin somewhere about 1725 or 1730, and though not recognized in the statutes or constitution of the university it gradually superseded the discussions as the actual test of the ability of students. The mediaeval system of education. The rules of some of the early colleges, especially those of Michael-house (founded in 1324, which now forms part of Trinity College), regulated every detail of the daily life of their members, and together with the ancient statutes of the university enable us to picture the ordinary routine of the career of a mediæval student. In the thirteenth or fourteenth century then a boy came up to the university at some age between ten and thirteen under the care of a 66 "fetcher," whose business it was to collect from some district about twenty or thirty lads and bring them up in one party. These "bringers of scholars" were protected by special enactments'. On his arrival the boy was generally entered under some master of arts who kept a hostel (i.e. a private boarding house licensed by the university) or if very lucky got a scholarship at a college. The university in its corporate capacity did not concern itself much about the discipline or instruction of its younger members: times were rough and life was hard, and if one student more or less died or otherwise came to grief no one cared about it, so that a student who relied on the university alone or got into a bad hostel was in sorry straits. If we follow the course of a student who was at one of the colleges or better hostels we may say that in general he spent the first four years of his residence in studying the subjects of the trivium, that is, Latin grammar, logic, and rhetoric. During that time he was to all intents a schoolboy, and was treated exactly like one. It is noticeable that the technical term for a student on presentation for the bachelor's degree is still juvenis, and the word vir is reserved for those who are at least full bachelors. Few of those who thus came up knew anything beyond the merest elements of Latin, and the first thing a student had to learn was to speak, read, and write that language. It is probable that to the end of the fourteenth century the bulk of those who came to the university did not progress beyond this, and were merely students in grammar attending the glomerel schools. There would seem to have been nearly a dozen such 1 Munimenta academica, 346; Lyte, 198. schools in the thirteenth century, each under one master, and all under the supervision of a member of the university, known as the magister glomeriae'. This master of glomery had as such no special right over the other students of the university, but the "glomerels" were of course subject to his authority; and to enhance his dignity he had a bedell to attend him. To these glomerels the university gave the degree of "master in grammar," which served as a license to teach Latin, gave the coveted prefix of dominus or magister (which in common language was generally rendered dan, don, or sir), and distinguished the clerk from a mere "hedge-priest." To get this degree the glomerel had first to shew that he had studied Priscian in the original, and then to give a practical demonstration of proficiency in the mechanical part of his art. The regulations were that on the glomerel proceeding to his degree "then shall the bedell purvay for every master in grammar a shrewd boy, whom the master in grammar shall beat openly in the grammar schools, and the master in grammar shall give the boy a groat for his labour, and another groat to him that provideth the rod and the palmer, etcetera, de singulis. And thus endeth the act in that faculty." The university presented the new master in grammar with a palmer, that is a ferule; he took a solemn oath that he would never teach Latin out of any indecent book; and he was then free of the exercise of his profession. The last degree in grammar was given in 1542. A student in grammar in general went down as soon as he got his degree. The resident masters in grammar occupied a very subordinate position in the university hierarchy. They not only yielded precedence to bachelors, but there were express 1 Mullinger, 1. 340. 2 These rules were laid down in 1275 by Hugh Balsham, the bishop of Ely. 3 The account of this and other ceremonies of the medieval university is taken from the bedell's book compiled in the sixteenth century by Matthew Stokes, a fellow of King's and registrary of the university. It is printed at length in an appendix to Peacock's Observations. statutes that the university should not attend the funeral of one of them. The corresponding degree of master of rhetoric was occasionally given. The last degree in this faculty was conferred in 1493. Ambitious students or the scholars of a college were expected to know something of Latin before they came up; but the knowledge was generally of a very elementary character, and not more than could be picked up at a monastic or cathedral school. These lads formed the honour students, and took their degrees in arts. To obtain the degree of master of arts in the thirteenth century it was necessary first to obtain a licentia docendi, and secondly to be "incepted," that is, admitted by the whole body of teachers or regents as one of themselves. The licentia docendi was originally obtained on proof of good moral character from the chancellor of the chapter of the church with which the university was in close connection. For inception the student was then recommended by a master of the university under whom he had studied, and the student had to keep an act or give a lecture before the whole university. On his inception he gave a dinner or presents to his new colleagues. Possibly the procedure was as elaborate as that described immediately hereafter, but we do not know any details beyond the above. At a later time, as education became more general, the lads were somewhat older when they came up, and were already acquainted with Latin grammar. The students in grammar thus gradually declined in numbers, and finally were hardly regarded as being members of the university. By the fifteenth century the average age at entrance was thirteen or four 1 Statuta antiqua, 178; Documents, 1. 404. Similar regulations existed at Oxford, Munimenta academica, 264, 443. 2 In founding King's College Henry VI. seems to have assumed that the scholars would have already mastered all the subjects of the trivium at Eton. The statute is quoted in Mullinger, 1. 308. |