Baccalaureate, Baccalaureate Degree

BACCALAUREATE, BACCALAUREATE DEGREE. - The name probably derives from the military and indicated a knight of light armor obliged to perform service (baccelleria) in exchange for the grant of a piece of land. From the lay militia it passed to the militia of Christ, where it indicated the minor-order clergy, then it was transferred to indicate an academic degree inferior to both the laurea and the licentiate, and from the University of Paris it probably spread to all the others. In theological universities, baccalaureus biblicus was the title given to one who, in the judgment of his master, was qualified to expound Holy Scripture, and baccalaureus sententiarius to one who could lecture on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. The degree was obtained by public disputation. There were also bachelors in the faculties of Law and of Arts. The name survives in France (bachelier ès lettres, bachelier ès sciences) and means a graduate of the secondary schools admissible to the university of letters or of sciences. It is fully in force in the Anglo-Saxon universities. It has been retained in the ecclesiastical faculties and, according to Deus Scientiarum Dominus (24 May 1931, art. 8), the baccalaureate "is an academic degree by which it is recognized that the student has given such proof of his learning as to be considered qualified to pursue the course toward the higher academic degrees"; it is conferred in theology, in utroque iure, and in philosophy after the second year of study: after the first in biblical studies, in canon law, in Christian archaeology, in oriental studies and in Gregorian chant (art. 41). The title is obtained only after having successfully passed the examinations required for the title itself.

Vittorio Bartoccetti