extravagant feasts that we find the Chancellor intervening to limit the
expense attending them to sixteen pence. The meaning of the term
"Responsions" is explained by the formula of the testamur: _Quaestionibus
magistrorum scholarum in Parviso respondit_. The parvise, or porch, may
have been symbolical of the initial stage--the early provisions of our
universities are full of symbolism. By way of preparation for his
examination the sophist was required to be diligent in attending
disputations in the parvise, and when he presented himself for his own
ordeal he had to make oath that these exercises had been duly performed.

The third stage was reached when the "questionist," as he was now, stood
for his bachelor's degree. This was known as Determination, because the
candidate had to determine questions in which his recent acquisitions in
logic should have enabled him to appear to advantage. According to the
rule, this function took place either on Ash Wednesday or on some day
between Ash Wednesday and the following Tuesday. However important
Responsions may have been in the eyes of the youthful student, they
paled before the elaborate ceremonies of Determination. In all the
two-and-thirty schools of School-street sat the Masters Regent in full
academical attire, their desks before them, it having been enacted that
the exercises should be carried out in the schools, not in private
dwellings or in churches. The statutes forbade unfairness in proposing
questions or in the manner of examining, but the candidate was, to some
extent, forearmed in this matter, since he might, apparently, select
his own judge. As a good audience was considered a primary necessity by
the masters, in order that their talents might obtain the widest
possible recognition, well-wishers seem to have gone so far as to drag
into the schools reluctant passers-by--a nuisance of such frequent
occurrence that it was forbidden by statute. An attempt was made also to
prevent fees or robes being given to the masters, but the statute
doubtless proved inoperative, and was afterwards repealed. Another
custom, which the authorities vainly prohibited, and was plainly
incongruous at the season of Lent, was the holding of feasts by
bachelors on admission.

Before a scholar was permitted to determine, six masters at least had to
testify on oath in congregation regarding his fitness in knowledge,
morals, age, stature, and personal appearance. They were bound to
secrec