Degrees, UNIVERSITY.

Degrees, UNIVERSITY. In its original signification a degree was simply a certificate that the person who held it was qualified to take part in the public teaching of a university. In the fully developed medieval university there were the four faculties of arts, law, medicine, and theology; and in each of these faculties there were special degrees of its own. These degrees were the baccalaureate, the licentiate, and the doctorate, though, strictly speaking, the first was not a degree, since it did not confer the right of public teaching. For the attainment of each degree certain subjects were prescribed for examination, as also a fixed term of study in connection with some university. Both the subjects and the periods of study varied with the progress of learning; but the different universities always sought to preserve a common standard. In Paris, at the close of the 15th century, the terms of study requisite to qualify for teaching in the different faculties were the following: in arts, four years; in law, seven; in medicine, eight; and in theology, fourteen. In modern times a degree in arts is simply a certificate of a certain measure of acquaintance with the subject to which it refers; but in the case of the higher faculties, that is, of law, medicine, and theology, the degree also implies a license to exercise the functions of the professions that depend on these faculties. It was formerly an indispensable condition to obtain a degree that the knowledge it represented should have been acquired at one or other of the legally constituted universities; but of late years certain universities, such as that of London, have been founded, which grant degrees to persons who pass examinations on prescribed subjects without the necessity of university attendance. A still further departure from the original import of the term is seen in what are known as 'honorary degrees.' Such degrees are conferred by universities on persons who have distinguished themselves in spheres of life which have no direct connection with the studies for which they exist. Thus, eminent soldiers, artists, and even merchants, have received the degree of Doctor of Laws. Not a few scholastic bodies are even understood to grant degrees on purchase, or on other such easy conditions that the original significance of the degree is completely lost. In the middle ages the right to confer degrees was granted by the pope, who was the recognised head of all the universities; and at the present day he claims the privilege of directly conferring degrees on whom he pleases. In Protestant countries the right can be granted only by the state. By an act of the reign of Henry VIII., the Archbishop of Canterbury received the right of conferring degrees; but these, known as 'Lambeth degrees,' never carried with them the same privileges as those of Oxford and Cambridge. In the medieval universities, music made part of the curriculum of the faculty of arts, and doctors and bachelors of music are still created by some universities. The German doctorate in philosophy corresponds in some respects to the M.A. degree elsewhere. The degrees of doctor and bachelor of science are of comparatively recent institution. For the usual abbreviations for degrees, see ABBREVIATIONS. See also UNIVERSITY, DOCTOR; and for the Chinese system of degrees, see CHINA, p. 190.—For degrees of relationship, see CONSANGUINITY.