On Reading for Examinations by Arthur Quiller-Couch

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.