exercises necessary to the degree are at
Cambridge one act after the fourth year, two opponencies, a
clerum, and an English sermon. At Oxford, disputations are
enjoined upon two distinct days before the Professors of the
Faculty of Divinity, and a Latin sermon is preached before the
Vice-Chancellor. The degree of Theologiae Baccalaureus was
conferred at Harvard College on Mr. Leverett, afterwards President
of that institution, in 1692, and on Mr. William Brattle in the
same year, the only instances, it is believed, in which this
degree has been given in America.

BEADLE, BEDEL, BEDELL. An officer in a university, whose chief
business is to walk with a mace, before the masters, in a public
procession; or, as in America, before the president, trustees,
faculty, and students of a college, in a procession, at public
commencements.--_Webster_.

In the English universities there are two classes of Bedels,
called the _Esquire_ and the _Yeoman Bedel_.

Of this officer as connected with Yale College, President Woolsey
speaks as follows:--"The beadle or his substitute, the vice-beadle
(for the sheriff of the county came to be invested with the
office), was the master of processions, and a sort of
gentleman-usher to execute the commands of the President. He was a
younger graduate settled at or near the College. There is on
record a diploma of President Clap's, investing with this office a
graduate of three years' standing, and conceding to him 'omnia
jura privilegia et auctoritates ad Bedelli officium, secundum
collegiorum aut universitatum leges et consuetudines usitatas;
spectantia.' The office, as is well known, still exists in the
English institutions of learning, whence it was transferred first
to Harvard and thence to this institution."--_Hist. Disc._, Aug.,
1850, p. 43.

In an account of a Commencement at Williams College, Sept. 8,
1795, the order in which the procession was formed was as follows:
"First, the scholars of the academy; second, students of college;
third, the sheriff of the county acting as _Bedellus_,"
&c.--_Federal Orrery_, Sept. 28, 1795.

The _Beadle_, by order, made the following declaration.--_Clap's
Hist. Yale Coll._, 1766, p. 56.

It shall be the duty of the Faculty to appoint a _College Beadle_,
who shall direct the procession on Commencement day, and preserve
order during the exhibitions.--_Laws Yale Coll._, 1837, p. 43.

BED-MAKER. One whose occupation is to make beds, and, as in
co