Disputation

Disputation, an exercise of logical and dialectic skill, in which one party advanced an argument, and the other sought to refute it. Challenges to such exercises were often issued—e.g. at Paris in 1577, by the 'Admirable' Crichton. Memorable religious disputations were those between Knox and Kennedy (1562), and between Laud and Fisher the Jesuit (1623). The practice survives as an academic form.