It is only in modern times that the conferring of a degree follows upon a set written examination. For six hundred years the aspiring bachelor and master obtained their status by public disputations in the schools. Public exercises, called “acts, opponencies and responsions,” were regularly held during the period of probation, and the student advanced to the degree of master by steps which recall the rites of initiation in the catechumenate. After his first year the “freshman” became a “junior sophister”[262] in one of the faculties, and began to attend the school disputations, without however taking part in them. In his fourth year, as senior sophister, he qualified to be “questionist,” and presented himself as such at the beginning of Lent with ceremonies which turned him into a bachelor; ceremonies in which the Cambridge bedell figures as a veritable deacon. The procession was formed on Ash Wednesday and introduced into the arts schools by the bedell, who exclaimed: “_Nostra Mater, bona nova, bona nova!_” and “the father” (the presiding college senior) having proceeded to his place, the bedell suggested to him the stages of the ceremony: _Reverende pater, licebit tibi incipere_, etc. After this day the new bachelor was no longer a questionist but a “determiner” who determined in place of responding to the propositions raised in the schools. This status continued through Lent, and hence the incepting bachelor was described as _stans in quadragesima_.[263] [Sidenote: The master of arts.] In due course the bachelor “commenced master of arts,” the inception taking place in Great S. Mary’s church on the day of the “Great Commencement” the second of July. This is the traditional time of year for the granting of degrees, and the ceremony is still called “Commencements” in Cambridge and in universities which, like Dublin, are derivative institutions. The status now attained was that of _regent master_, _i.e._ a junior graduate whose [Illustration: THE CLOISTER COURT, SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE The new buildings on the left of the picture were designed by Mr. J. L. Pearson and erected in 1890. In the distance we see the large mullioned window of the Hall, which is part of the old college building begun 1596.]