In all the
two-and-thirty schools of School-street sat the Masters Regent in full
academical attire, their desks before them, it having been enacted that
the exercises should be carried out in the schools, not in private
dwellings or in churches. The statutes forbade unfairness in proposing
questions or in the manner of examining, but the candidate was, to some
extent, forearmed in this matter, since he might, apparently, select
his own judge. As a good audience was considered a primary necessity by
the masters, in order that their talents might obtain the widest
possible recognition, well-wishers seem to have gone so far as to drag
into the schools reluctant passers-by--a nuisance of such frequent
occurrence that it was forbidden by statute. An attempt was made also to
prevent fees or robes being given to the masters, but the statute
doubtless proved inoperative, and was afterwards repealed. Another
custom, which the authorities vainly prohibited, and was plainly
incongruous at the season of Lent, was the holding of feasts by
bachelors on admission.
Before a scholar was permitted to determine, six masters at least had to
testify on oath in congregation regarding his fitness in knowledge,
morals, age, stature, and personal appearance. They were bound to
secrecy as to the nature of their testimony, the sufficiency of which
was decided by four Regent Masters of Arts, two of the North and two of
the South, eight days before Ash Wednesday.
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