The students slept in trundle beds around his bed and had an
adjacent room for study. Scholasticism was only starting to give
way to modern studies. Aristotle, whose authority was paramount,
remained the lynch pin of university studies, especially for logic
and dialectic. The study of rhetoric was based on Quintilian, the
Latin writer, and the Greek treatise of Hermogenes of Tarsus. Also
studyed was Cicero's orations as models of style. Examination for
degrees was by disputation over a thesis of the student. The B.A.
degree was given after four years of study, and the M.A. after
three more. There were advanced degrees in civil law (after seven
more years of study), medicine (after seven years), divinity
(required more than seven years), and music. Many of the men who
continued for advanced degrees became fellows and took part in the
teaching. Most fellowships were restricted to clerics. Oxford and
Cambridge Universities operated under a tutorial system. Access to
grammar schools and universities was closed to girls of whatever
class. Oxford University now had the Bodleian Library. In the
universities, there were three types of students: poor scholars,
who received scholarships and also performed various kinds of
service such as kitchen work and did errands for fellows such as
carrying water and waiting on tables; commoners, who paid low fees
and were often the sons of economical gentlemen or businessmen;
and the Fellow Commoners (a privileged and well-to-do minority,
usually sons of noblemen or great country gentlemen).
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