He shared Aristotle's belief that the earth
was a sphere, and that the celestial bodies moved around it in
perfect circles. Latin learning had already been absorbed without
detriment to the church.
A student at Oxford would become a master after graduating from a
seven year course of study of the seven liberal arts: [grammar,
rhetoric (the source of law), Aristotelian logic (which
differentiates the true from the false), arithmetic, including
fractions and ratios, (the foundation of order), geometry,
including methods of finding the length of lines, the area of
surfaces, and the volume of solids, (the science of measurement),
astronomy (the most noble of the sciences because it is connected
with divinity and theology), music and also Aristotle's philosophy
of physics, metaphysics, and ethics; and then lecturing and
leading disputations for two years. He also had to write a thesis
on some chosen subject and defend it against the faculty. A
Master's degree gave one the right to teach. Further study for
four years led to a doctorate in one of the professions: theology
and canon or civil law.
There were about 1,500 students in Oxford. They drank, played
dice, quarreled a lot and begged at street corners. There were mob
fights between students from the north and students from the south
and between students and townsmen. But when the mayor of Oxford
hanged two students accused of being involved in the killing of a
townswoman, many masters and students left for Cambridge.
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