ding. In
the English universities, it is given to the candidate who has
been resident at least half of each of ten terms, i.e. during a
certain portion of a period extending over three and a third
years, and who has passed the University examinations.

The method of conferring the degree of B.A. at Trinity College,
Hartford, is peculiar. The President takes the hands of each
candidate in his own as he confers the degree. He also passes to
the candidate a book containing the College Statutes, which the
candidate holds in his right hand during the performance of a part
of the ceremony.

The initials of English academical titles always correspond to the
_English_, not to the Latin of the titles, _B.A._, M.A., D.D.,
D.C.L., &c.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.
13.

See BACHELOR.

BACCALAUREATE. The degree of Bachelor of Arts; the first or lowest
degree. In American colleges, this degree is conferred in course
on each member of the Senior Class in good standing. In Oxford and
Cambridge it is attainable in two different ways;--1. By
examination, to which those students alone are admissible who have
pursued the prescribed course of study for the space of three
years. 2. By extraordinary diploma, granted to individuals wholly
unconnected with the University. The former class are styled
Baccalaurei Formati, the latter Baccalaurei Currentes. In France
the degree of Baccalaureat (Baccalaureus Literarum) is conferred
indiscriminately upon such natives or foreigners and after a
strict examination in the classics, mathematics, and philosophy,
are declared to be qualified. In the German universities, the
title "Doctor Philosophiae" has long been substituted for
Baccalaureus Artium or Literarum. In the Middle Ages, the term
Baccalaureus was applied to an inferior order of knights, who came
into the field unattended by vassals; from them it was transferred
to the lowest class of ecclesiastics; and thence again, by Pope
Gregory the Ninth to the universities. In reference to the
derivation of this word, the military classes maintain that it is
either derived from the _baculus_ or staff with which knights were
usually invested, or from _bas chevalier_, an inferior kind of
knight; the literary classes, with more plausibility, perhaps,
trace its origin to the custom which prevailed universally among
the Greeks and Romans, and which was followed even in Italy till
the thirteenth century, of crowning distinguished