Lectures. Debates. Master or doctor. through lectures, which consisted in reading and explaining the text-book under consideration (Fig. 10). Beside the text itself, the teacher would read all the explanatory notes, summaries, cross-references, and objections to the author's statements, which often quite overshadowed the original, and might even add a commentary of his own. The passage was read slowly and repeated whenever necessary. The whole exercise was carried on in Latin, which had to be learned by the student before coming to the university. The training in debate was furnished by means of formal disputations, in which one student, or group of students, was pitted against another (Fig. 11). In these contests, which also were conducted in Latin, not only were authorities cited, but the debaters might add arguments of their own. Thus, compared with the memorizing of lectures, debating afforded some acuteness and vigor of intellect, but by the close of the fifteenth century it had become no longer reputable. The aim came to be to win and to secure applause without regard to truth or consistency. Examinations and Degrees. At the close of the course, the student was examined in his ability to define and dispute; and if he passed, he was admitted to the grade of master, doctor, or professor. These degrees seem originally to have been about on a par with each other, and signified that the candidate was now ready to Baccalaureate. practice the craft of teaching. The baccalaureate was at first not a real degree, but simply permission to become a candidate for the license to teach. During the thirteenth century, however, it came to be sought as an honor by many not intending to teach, and eventually became a separate degree. authoritative, The Value and Influence of the University Training.Obviously the medieval universities had most of the defects of their times. From a modern point of view, the content of their course of study was meager, fixed, and Meager and formal, and the methods of teaching were stereotyped and authoritative. They largely neglected the real literature of the classical age, and permitted but little that savored of investigation or thinking. Yet the universities were a product of the growing tendencies that later burst the fetters of medievalism. They were a great encouragement to subtlety, industry, and thoroughness, and their efforts toward philosophic speculation contained the germs of the modern spirit of inquiry and but somewhat productive of rationality. They were even of immediate assistance in inquiry and promoting freedom of discussion and advancing democracy, and to their arbitration were often referred disputes between the civil and ecclesiastical powers. Thus they aided greatly in advancing the cause of individualism and carrying forward the torch of civilization and progress. freedom. SUPPLEMENTARY READING Graves, During the Transition (Macmillan, 1910), chap. IX; Monroe, Text-book (Macmillan, 1905), pp. 313-327. Standard works on the universities in general are Laurie, S. S., The Rise and Early Constitution of Universities (Appleton, 1886), and the more complete and accurate Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1895), by Rashdall, H. For a brief source account of the privileges, courses, methods, and student life of universities, see Norton, A. O., Readings in the History of Education; Medieval Universities (Harvard University, 1909), or Munro, D. C., The Medieval Student (Longmans, Green, 1899). For the history of individual universities, see Compayré, G., |