Full text: Proceedings of the International Congress of Education of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July 25-28, 1893

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GREEK FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS. 119 
had been introduced at some time prior to 1251), and the faculty of arts 
were recognized as distinct, and as together constituting the university. 
The same general system is found in all the universities of the middle ages. 
Up to the fourteenth century no formal degree was given. The first ap- 
proximation to such a degree took the shape of the granting of a license 
-0 teach, the licentia docendi. The title of ““ master ” or ¢“ doctor ’—1.e., 
s tegcher ’—was not conferred, but was adopted, as a natural expression 
»f his vocation, by the successful candidate. 
The word ¢ bachelor,” whatever may have been its origin, was at first 
ased to indicate a young student preparing for his examination for the 
licentiate ; or, as we should now say, an ‘‘ undergraduate.” 
For some time no test was imposed upon the would-be candidate. 
But as early as 1275 (the date before which the division. of the University 
of Paris into four faculties had been effected) a regular form of examina- 
tion, called the déterminance, had been established at that university. 
The word is taken from a medieval use of the Latin word determinare, 
in the sense of fixing, settling. The déterminance took the form of a 
public settling of a point—d.e., of a public argument, followed by a ques- 
sioning of the candidate. In the faculty of arts this test was not open 
:0 the student unless he had reached the age of fourteen, at the least, and 
aad pursued certain courses through two years, namely (in the University 
of Paris during the fourteenth century) Aristotle’s works on logic (of 
sourse in a Latin version), Priscian’s ¢ Grammatical Institutes,” Boethiug’s 
«« Divisions and Topics,” Donatus’s ¢ Barbarism,” and the ¢ Six Princi- 
ples” of Gilbert de la Porrée. Since the passing of this test proved that 
‘he successful student had a right to reckon himself among the candi- 
lates for the licentiate—i.e., of the baccalaurei—the title of baccalaureus 
itself came in time to be granted. In the fifteenth century this title 
was in full use, and the four degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of 
Theology, Bachelor of Law, and Bachelor of Medicine were regularly 
sonferred by the respective faculties. The status represented by these 
legrees, it will be observed, was a preliminary or intermediate one. 
The studies required for the licentiate in arts,—i.e., for the right to 
teach at the completion of the course in arts, demand a brief enumera- 
sion, from the fact that the requirements for the degree of bachelor came 
afterward to include them. They were, in addition to those already men- 
sioned, Aristotle’s works on ethics, psychology, and physics, together with 
a hundred lectures on mathematics and astronomy. 
In the university antedating the Renascence, then, the curriculum 
»mbraced Greek philosophy, ethics, psychology, and physics (of course in 
Latin versions), Latin grammar (with little literature), mathematics, and 
astronomy. All these subjects were taught from dictation, and in what, 
if we forget the scanty means at the disposal of the professors, and the 
non-existence of printed books, we might too easily regard as a barren
	        
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