[Sidenote: The Registrar's Declaration.] The degree ceremony itself begins with the declaration on the part of the Registrar that the candidates for the degrees have duly received permissions (_gratiae_) from their Colleges to present themselves, and that their names have been approved by him[2]; he has already certified himself from the University Register that all necessary examinations have been passed, and has been informed officially that all fees have been paid. The names have been already posted outside the door of the House; it is said that this is done to enable a tradesman to find out when any of his young debtors is about to leave Oxford, so that he may protest, if he wish, against the degree. The posting, however, is natural for many reasons, and no such tradesman's protest has been known for years; nor is it easy to see how it could be made by any one not himself a member of the University. [Sidenote: The College Grace.] The form of the college 'grace' states that the candidate has performed all the University requirements; that for the B.A. may be given as a specimen:-- 'I, _A.B._, Dean of the College _C.D._, bear witness that _E.F._ of the College _C.D._, whom I know to have kept bed and board continuously within the University for the whole period required by the statutes for the degree of B.A., according as the statutes require, since he has undergone a public examination and performed all the other requirements of the statutes, except so far as he has been dispensed, has received from his college the grace for the degree of B.A. Under my pledged word to this University. _A.B._, Dean of the College _C.D._' The words as to residence, that 'bed and board have been kept continuously' are derived immediately from the Laudian statute, but are in fact much older: the other clauses have of course been changed. [Sidenote: Order of Degrees.] The various degrees are then taken in the following order:-- Doctor of Divinity. Doctor of Civil Law or of Medicine. Bachelor of Divinity. Master of Surgery. Bachelor of Civil Law or of Medicine (and of Surgery). Doctor of Letters or of Science.[3] Master of Arts. Bachelor of Letters or of Science. Bachelor of Arts. Musical degrees. It sometimes happens, however, that a candidate is taking two degrees at once (i.e. B.A. and M.A.); this 'unusual distinction', as local newspapers admiringly call it, is generally due to the unkindness of examiners who have prolonged the ordinary B.A. course by repeated 'ploughs'. In these cases the lower degree is conferred out of order before the higher.