e of
the Oxford Encaenia or degree day here in May week would
perhaps be the nearest modern equivalent of these medieval
exhibitions of rising talent. Every effort was made to attract
to the Schools as large an audience as possible, not merely of
Masters or fellow-students, but if possible of ecclesiastical
dignitaries and other distinguished persons. The friends of a
Determiner who was not successful in drawing a more
distinguished audience, would run out into the streets and
forcibly drag chance passers-by into the School. Wine was
provided at the Determiner's expense in the Schools: and the
day ended in a feast [given in imitation of the Master's
Inception-banquets], even if dancing or torch-light processions
were forborne in deference to authority.

I may add here in parenthesis that the thirstiness, always so
remarkable in the medieval man whether it make him strange to you
or help to ingratiate him as a human brother, seems to have
followed him even into the Tripos. 'It was not only after a
University exercise,' says the historian (Rashdall, Vol. II, p.
687), 'but during its progress that the need of refreshment was
apt to be felt.... Many Statutes allude--some by way of
prohibition, but not always--to the custom of providing wine for
the Examiners or Temptator [good word] before, during, or after
the Examination. At Heidelberg the Dean of the Faculty might
order in drinks, the candidate not. At Leipsic the candidate is
forbidden to treat [_facere propinam_] the Examiners _before_ the
Examination: which seems sound. At Vienna (medical school) he is
required to spend a florin "_pro confectionibus_".'

V

Now when we come to England--that is, to Oxford and Cambridge,
which ever had queer ways of their own--we find, strange to say,
for centuries no evidence at all of any kind of examination. As
for _competitive_ examinations like the defunct Mathematical and
Classical Triposes here--with Senior Wranglers, Wooden Spoons and
what lay between--of all European Universities, Louvain alone
used the system and may have invented it. At Louvain the
candidates for the Mastership were placed in three classes, in
each of which the names were arranged in order of merit. The
first class were styled _Rigorosi_ (Honour-men), the second
_Transibiles_ (Pass-men), the third _Gratiosi_ (Charity-passes);
while a fourth class, not publicly announced, contained the names
of those who could not be passed on