william t. costello, sj - The School of Literature, Communication, and ...

THE FRAMEWORK OF SCHOLASTICISM 15
qut ipsum vere ac recte dissolvere norit, nemo ex Sophistis re-
periatur, turn Moderator ipse dissolvet. 25 As for University requirements,
the student had to appear four times in the schools
during his four years as an undergraduate, twice as answerer or
defendant, twice as
objector. These statutory appearances, called
quadragesimals, were made in Lent: "From Ash-Wednesday, unto
the said Thursday, all the Commencers (except some few whom
the father shall think fit to dispence with) are to come to the
Schools upon every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday &
Friday, at one of the Clock in the Afternoon, & to bring thither
with them every one a Sophister." 26 These sessions lasted for four
hours, "from one of the Clock until 5 in every of the said Days:
during all which time the said commencers are there to be ready
to defend 2 or 3 Theses, which they themselves shal make choice
of, & deliver unto those Bachelors of Arts, not of the same College,
who shall think fit to come thither to reply upon them." 27 English
education was as sensible then as it is now, for modern tea
at Cambridge had a sanctioned ancestor during these disputations,
when "[e]very Day at 3 of the clock all the Bachelors &
Sophisters may goe out till 4, 8c refresh & recreate themselves." 28
At four o'clock the Proctors checked them in again. Presently,
while "[t]he Commencers 8c their Sophisters are disputing &
wrangling there . . . the clock strikes 5, 8c then they knock off &
goe to their several Colleges." 29
To call these disputations merely debates between students
as we have done is like describing a Spanish bullfight as the
killing of a cow. To the twentieth century the is disputation as
exotic a performance as a bullfight to a non-Spaniard. The maneuvers
of the disputants were as technical as the veronica and
half-veronica; the audience was as critically appreciative; the
ceremonial was as elaborate. And success as sought for! Fame and
fortune often depended upon the disputants' skill, as when
Lancelot Andrewes was launched upon his career by beating a
colleague to a Pembroke fellowship. 30
held on the eve of
Particularly is this true of the disputations
Commencement Day and on Commencement Day itself (in vesperis
comitiorum and in comitiis), or upon special occasions. An
elaborate ceremonial surrounded these events. The esquire be-
dells, university functionaries who still attend the Vice-Chancellor,
carry the maces, and act as masters of ceremonies in top hat
and gown, formed a procession
to conduct the Professor and his
disputaturient students from the college to the schools. As Es-