Inception properly signified the commencement of an active career as a teacher; and thus the new master would have taken precautions to secure a school as well as the articles of attire appertaining to his degree, including "pynsons," a kind of boot or shoe. He was also obliged to visit all the schools, invite the masters to be present on the day of inception, and provide them, one and all, with a suit of clothes. This was such a serious incubus that statutes were passed limiting such perquisites to kinsmen or members of the same hall; and it probably explains the custom of incepting for others--the rich acting for the poor. From every inceptor the bedels were entitled to a gratuity of twenty shillings and a pair of buckskin gloves, or an equivalent sum of money; and inceptors whose income amounted to forty pounds a year were compelled to feast all the Regent Masters or forfeit twenty marks to the University. The main distinction between Regent and Non-Regent Masters seems to have been that the former were perforce teachers, in which condition they were obliged to remain during the remainder of the year in which they incepted and for a twelvemonth afterwards. In the case of the Non-Regents, who had exceeded this period of probation, lecturing appears to have been optional. The Regent Master was required to devote forty days of his novitiate to disputation. Inception feasts were apt to degenerate into occasions of riot, and in 1432 the following statute was passed with a view to regulating them: "Whereas at the feasts held at graduations there occur such disorderly scenes and violence that more annoyance and disgrace than pleasure is caused to the host himself and all his guests, the University, for the prevention of such disorders for the future, hereby orders that no one shall stop the ingress and egress of any master or his servants to or from the hall or tent or other place where the feast is being held; and that no one, except the servants of the University, or of the host, shall enter the said hall, until after the masters, who have been invited, have entered with their servants; and after they have sat down, no one shall sit down, except by the appointment of the Chancellor and in proper order according to rank; and no one shall beat the doors, tables, or roof, or throw stones or other missiles so as to disturb the guests, on pain of imprisonment, excommunication, and a fine of twelve pence." As these convivialities were so unpleasant, and even dangerous, it may seem that it would have been the obvious course to prohibit them altogether, as in the case of determining bachelors; but the University clung to its feasts, and in 1478 fresh rules were made, this time with the special aim of bleeding or mulcting the intrusive friars and the wealthy monks: