I may add here in parenthesis that the thirstiness, always so remarkable in the medieval man whether it make him strange to you or help to ingratiate him as a human brother, seems to have followed him even into the Tripos. 'It was not only after a University exercise,' says the historian (Rashdall, Vol. II, p. 687), 'but during its progress that the need of refreshment was apt to be felt.... Many Statutes allude--some by way of prohibition, but not always--to the custom of providing wine for the Examiners or Temptator [good word] before, during, or after the Examination. At Heidelberg the Dean of the Faculty might order in drinks, the candidate not. At Leipsic the candidate is forbidden to treat [_facere propinam_] the Examiners _before_ the Examination: which seems sound. At Vienna (medical school) he is required to spend a florin "_pro confectionibus_".' V Now when we come to England--that is, to Oxford and Cambridge, which ever had queer ways of their own--we find, strange to say, for centuries no evidence at all of any kind of examination. As for _competitive_ examinations like the defunct Mathematical and Classical Triposes here--with Senior Wranglers, Wooden Spoons and what lay between--of all European Universities, Louvain alone used the system and may have invented it. At Louvain the candidates for the Mastership were placed in three classes, in each of which the names were arranged in order of merit. The first class were styled _Rigorosi_ (Honour-men), the second _Transibiles_ (Pass-men), the third _Gratiosi_ (Charity-passes); while a fourth class, not publicly announced, contained the names of those who could not be passed on any terms. '_Si autem (quod absit!),_' says the Statute, '_aliqui inveniantur refutabiles, erant de quarto ordine._' 'These competitive examinations'--I proceed in the historian's words--'contributed largely to raise Louvain to the high position as a place of learning and education which it retained before the Universities were roused from their 15th century torpor by the revival of Learning.' Pope Adrian VI was one of its famous _Primuses,_ and Jansen another. The College which produced a _Primus_ enjoyed three days' holiday, during which its bell was rung continuously day and night.