The graduate
fellows of the college who were M.A.s of under three years
standing had the responsibility, instead of the university, for
teaching the undergraduates. This led many to regard their
fellowship as a position for life rather than until they completed
their post-graduate studies. But they were still required to
resign on marrying or taking up an ecclesiastical benefice. The
undergraduates were poor scholars or fee-paying members of the
college. Some of the fee-paying members or gentlemen-commoners or
fellow-commoners were the sons of the nobility and gentry and even
shared the fellows' table. The undergraduate students were
required to have a particular tutors, who were responsible for
their moral behavior as well as their academic studies. It was
through the tutors that modern studies fit for the education of a
Renaissance gentleman became the norm. Those students not seeking
a degree could devise his own course of study with his tutor's
permission. Less than about 40% stayed long enough to get a
degree. Many students who were working on the seven year program
for a Master's Degree went out of residence at college after the
four year's "bachelor" course. Students had text books to read
rather than simply listening to a teacher read books to them.
In addition to the lecturing of the M.A.s and the endowed
university lectureships, the university held exercises every
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in which the student was meant
through disputation, to apply the formal precepts in logic and
rhetoric to the practical business of public speaking and debate.
Pages:
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632