Bible Encyclopedias
Bachelor of Arts

　　A degree marking the completion of the traditional curriculum of the college. In the medieval universities, the Mastership, or Doctorate, was the great academic prize. The Bachelorship does not appear to have existed at first, either at Bologna or Paris. It probably originated from the practice of employing the more advanced students to assist in teaching those who were younger, such teaching being regarded as a preparation for the Mastership. Before being allowed to begin to teach, the student had to maintain a thesis or disputation in public. The technical term for this was "Determination". To "determine" meant, for the student, to resolve questions in a public disputation in order to prove his fitness to enter upon the second stage of his career for the Mastership. "Determination" was thus an imitation of "Inception", which admitted to the Mastership, and like the latter is soon developed into a mere academic ceremony, examinations being held beforehand to ascertain the fitness of the candidate. Of these there were two, a preliminary one, known as "Responsions", and a second one, more severe, known as Examen Baccalariandorum. In addition to the disputation, the ceremony of Determination consisted in the student's putting on the special cap worn by those who had "determined", and taking his seat in their midst. In the celebrated Bull of Gregory IX, "Parens Scientarium", issued in 1231, we find the term Bachellarii applied to those who were pursuing their studies for the Mastership, while helping to teach. The term was very likely taken over from the Guilds, in which the French word Bachelier was applied, at the time, to a young man who was an apprentice. The academic condition which the word was employed to designate involved the idea of an apprenticeship in teaching. The later academic term Baccalaurius (spelled Baccalarius at first) was probably a corrupt latinized form of the same word.The length of the course in Arts in the medieval universities varied considerably according to time and place. The statutes framed for the University of Paris, in 1215, by Robert de Courçon, the papal legate, fixed the minimum length of the course at six years, twenty years of age being required for its completion and the reception of the license. Later statutes fixed the minimum age for determination at fourteen years. At Paris the time between matriculation and determination was usually from one to two years. The tendency at Paris, and on the Continent, was towards early determination. The extreme effect of this tendency is seen in the fact that the Baccalaureate eventually disappeared altogether from Continental universities. At Oxford and Cambridge, on the other hand, the tendency was towards late determination. At Paris the age for entrance was about thirteen, and for determination about fifteen. At Oxford the boy entered at about the age of fourteen, and passed four years before being allowed to determine. The English Bachelor was thus several years older than the French or German Bachelor. The custom of late determination at Oxford and Cambridge which was largely due to the development of the English grammar-school system, furnishes an historical explanation of the fact that the American college graduate today is several years older then the French Bachelor, or the German student on finishing the Gymnasium, American colleges having adopted the English system in this respect. The studies leading to the Baccalaureate varied naturally with the length of time required. Those prescribed at Oxford in 1267 were as follows: