APPENDIX III. EDUCATIONAL.

(B.) THE EXAMINATION AND HONOURS FOR A DEGREE IN ARTS, DURING CENTURIES ESTABLISHED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN.

I HAVE previously referred (p. 418) to this Appendix, for a statement in regard to the examination for degrees by the University of Louvain, in its Faculty of Arts; which, though overlooked by all academical historians, is, I think, the best example upon record of the true mode of such examination, and, until recent times, in fact, the only example in the history of Universities worthy of consideration at all. And as I shall have occasion to make a reference to this examination, from the Appendix upon Oxford, it may be convenient to insert here, what I should otherwise have postponed.

The University of Louvain, long second only to that of Paris in the number of its students and the celebrity of its teachers, and more comprehensive even than Paris in the subjects taught; was for several centuries famed, especially, for the validity of its certificates of competency-for the value of its different degrees. It is recorded by Erasmus as a current saying, "that no one can graduate in Louvain without knowledge, manners, and age." But among its different degrees, a Louvain promotion in Arts was decidedly pre-eminent; because, in this Faculty, the principles of academical examination were most fully and purely carried out. I am acquainted, I think, with all the principal documents touching this illustrious school; and beside the Privilegia, or collection of statutes, &c. (1728,) possess the relative historical works of Lipsius (1605,) of Grammaye (1607,) of Vernulæus (1627 and 1667,) of Golnitz (1631,) of Valerius Andreas (1636 and 1650,) of the Zedlerian Lexicon (1738,) and of Reiffenberg (1829, sq.) But strange to say, I have found no articulate account of its famous examinations, except in the Academia

Lovaniensis of Vernulæus; and from that book, with a short preliminary extract from the Fasti of Andreas, I translate the following passages.

VALERIUS ANDREAS.- "" PHILOSOPHY, from the very commencement of the University, was wont to be taught, partly in private houses, partly in 'the Street' or public School of Arts, (where, indeed, the prelections of two chairs in that Faculty, to wit, Ethics and Rhetoric, are even now publicly delivered,) the Masters themselves teaching each his peculiar subject at a fixed and separate hour; until, in the year 1446, by the authority of the Faculty, [private tuition was abolished, and] four Houses were appropriated to licensed instruction in Philosophy, [some eight and twenty other Colleges belonging to it, being left to supply board and lodging to the students.] These four Houses are commonly called Pædagogia, and, from their several insignia, go by the names of the Lily, the Falcon, the Castle, the Hog.The LANGUAGES (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,) thereafter obtained their special Professors in the Trilingual or Buslidian College.— The chair of MATHEMATICS, (though its subject had been previously taught,) was founded in the year 1636.”—(Pp. 9, 243, 249.)

VERNULÆUS, L. ii. c. 6. "ON STUDY AND DEGREES IN THE [LOUVAIN] FACULTY OF ARTS.

"Let us now speak concerning Study, which in this Faculty is twofold.

"The study of Philosophy is accomplished in two years. For there is given nine months to Logic, eight to Physics, four to Metaphysics; whilst the last three months are devoted to Repetitions of the whole course of Philosophy.-['Account is also taken of Moral Philosophy, taught on Sundays and Holidays, by the public Professor, in the Street' or School of Arts, and in the Pædagogia by domestic Professors.'-(V. Andreas, p. 242.)]

"The exercises of this philosophical study take place in four Gymnasia, called Pædagogia. In each of these there are four daily prelections, two before, two after, noon; . . . and each House has four Professors of Philosophy, two of whom are called Primaries, two Secondaries. These Professors divide among them the whole course of Philosophy. And first, in Logic: The Primaries expound the introduction of Porphyry, Aristotle's Categories, and his books of Prior and Posterior Analytics: whilst the Secondaries, after an explanation of the Elements of

Logic, lecture upon Aristotle's books of Enouncement, Topics, and Sophisms. In Physics and Metaphysics,* [I omit the enumeration of books,] the Primaries teach at the hours of six and ten of the morning; the Secondaries at two and four of the afternoon; and the hearers for one hour take down the dictatest of their instructor, whilst for another they are examined and required to give an account of the prelection which they have. again, in the interval, considered.

"The exercises of Disputation are either private or public.

"The private are conducted in the several Pædagogia, and in kind are twofold.-In the first place, the students, at certain fixed hours, contend with each other, on proposed questions, note each other's errors, and submit them to the judgment of the Professor; and he, thereafter, assigns place and rank to the more learned.-Besides these, on each Monday and Friday, there are Disputations held on points of Logic and Physics, over which one of the Professors in rotation presides. These commence in January and end in June.

"The public Disputations take place in the common School of Arts, which is called The Street;' and these also are of two kinds. In the first place, on Mondays and Fridays, during Lent, the Physical auditors of all the Gymnasia, divided into certain classes, compete among themselves for glory; one prescribing to another the matter of disputation.-Besides these, there are eight other Disputations, carried through on Sundays, and which commence in January. There are present all the Physical hearers with their Professors, and in these they severally make answer during an hour on certain predetermined theses; and are oppugned by the Prior Bachelor, (that is, by him who has been chosen from the more learned,) and thereafter by others.

"The Honours or Degrees which are obtained in this Faculty are those of Bachelor, Licentiate, Master. Previous to these there is one public act, that of Determination, as it is called. Therein the students of Logic, in a public meeting of the whole University, severally state their opinion on some Ethical question proposed by the Preses, who is one of the Professors. In this man

* Compare Valerius Andreas, pp. 242, 243.

The Faculty had not a printed cursus on these departments, as on Logic. The Commentaries by the Masters of Louvain on the books of the Organon, are among the best extant. But the objects of study in all the Pædagogia were uniform; and all the pupils could be equally examined, &c., against each other in the general concourse of the University.

ner they profess themselves Students of Philosophy, but obtain no Degree.

"The Baccalaureate is here twofold. The one is obtained on examination after a three months study of Physics; the other, after the completion of the course of Metaphysics, and a public responsion touching Philosophy in general.

"For the Licence, the candidates of all the Gymnasia are presented in a body to the Venerable Faculty of Arts; and on that occasion, and in their presence, their future Examiners (that is the [eight] Primary Professors of all the Gymnasia, nominated by the Gymnasiarchs,) make solemn oath that they will be influenced by no private favour, but rank each candidate in the strict order of merit.-The examination then begins. This is twofold; the one is called the Trial, the other the Examination [proper.] For each, the whole body of candidates is divided into three Classes. The First Class consists of twelve, to wit, three from each of the gymnasia, students namely, who by the judgment of the Professors stand highest in learning. The Second Class, in like manner, comprehends twelve, the three, to wit, who from the four gymnasia are named as nearest in proficiency to the first. To them [of the second class] are added twelve others, called Aspirants. The Third Class is composed of all the rest. Those who are of the First Class are [each] examined for about three hours on all the branches of Philosophy; those who are of the Second, for two hours; those who are of the Third, for half an hour; and this, both in what is called the Trial, and in the Examination proper. The several examiners write down the answers of all the candidates, read them over again at home, and determine [what in their several opinions should be] the order of all and each, and write out the list. The Examination finished, the examiners, on a day appointed, consign their lists of arrangement to the Dean, who delivers them to the Gymnasiarchs. They consult among themselves, and, by an ingenious device, calculate the suffrages of arrangement, and appoint to each candidate his true and unquestionable rank.

"

When, however, the First or highest (Primus) is proclaimed, the bell is tolled in his gymnasium, for three days and nights, and holiday celebrated. I pass over the other signs of public rejoicing. This honour is valued at the highest, and he who obtains it is an object of universal observation. On the third day thereafter, in the public School of Arts, the candidates are,

in this fashion, proclaimed Licentiates:-In the first place, the Dean of the Venerable Faculty, after a public oration, presents the candidates to the Chancellor, [who on this occasion ranks superior to the Rector]. He (the Chancellor) then, having propounded a question, orders the Primus to afford, in the answer, a specimen of his erudition, he himself acting as opponent. The names of all the others are then proclaimed by the Beadle, in the order established by the Gymnasiarchs, on the votes of the examining Professors."

L. ii. c. 8. ON THE CELEBRITY OF THE [LOUVAIN] FACULTY OF ARTS. Nearly two hundred candidates annually merit the Laurel of Arts; what other University confers so many? The emulation prevalent between all the [Houses], Masters, and Students of this Faculty, and which though intense is void of envy, for in study discord is concordant ;-this emulation braces both the diligence of the teachers, and the application of the taught. And while they who stand first in the classification, merit and receive especial honour, while they who stand last, are almost equally disgraced;* the issue is, that no labour is spared either by the Professors in teaching, or by the Pupils in learning. The ambition of all here is honourable and hard-working."

The result of this excellent scheme of examination is,-that a degree, taken in the University of Louvain, was always accounted respectable, and, if connected with a high place upon the list, superior to any other throughout Christendom. And this too

It does not appear that there were in Louvain any, at least any adequate, rejections.-Universities, which have not lavished their degrees on mere standing, or mere professorial attendance, (to say nothing of inferior considerations,) have endeavoured to make their examinations respectable, in three ways: which ways also admit of junction; for any two of them may be combined, whilst the whole three may also be united. These are, 1°, Rejection of incompetent candidates, by relation to some minimum of knowledge; 2°, Classification of candidates, by their proficiency in relation to certain amounts of knowledge; 3°, Subordination of candidates determined merely by their inferiority in knowledge, relatively to each other. The Edinburgh medical degrees, as they formerly were given, may stand as an example of the first; the Louvain and quondam (?) Cambridge degrees in Arts, (had Cambridge published and arranged its Polloi,) may afford instances of the second added to the third; while those of Oxford, for nearly half a century, may supply the specimen of a combination of the first and second. A union of the whole three is the condition of a perfect examination. The condition I say; for, besides that condition, there are further requisites of such perfection; as the competence of examiners, their obligation to impartiality established upon oath, the publicity of the examination, and the adequate appointment of its subjects.