DOCTOR (Lat. dodre, to teach), a teacher. Originally, the word doctor was used, in accordance with its etymological derivation, to signify a teacher in general, and it was not till the 12th c. that it became a title of honor for learned, irrespective of the function of communicating knowledge. It had frequently appended to it, in those early days, some additional expression intended to characterize the peculiar gift of its pos sessor. Thus, Thomas Aquinas was called the Doctor Angelicus; Bonaventura, the Doctor Seraphicus; Alexander de Hales, the Doctor Irrefragabilis; Duns Scotus, the Doctor Subtilis; Roger Bacon, the Doctor Mirabilis; William Occam, the Doctor Sin gularis; Gregory of Rimini, the Doctor Authenticus; Joseph Gerson, the Doctor Chris tianissimus; Thomas Bradwardine, the Doctor Profundus; and the like. The word had long been used, even in the universities, as a general expression for a teacher before it came to designate a degree or rank in the learned hierarchy to which only the united body of the teachers could advance or promote the candidate. These formal promotions commenced at Bologna in the 12th c., and the learned Irnerius, the regenerator of the Roinan law at that period, is said to have introduced the ceremonial which was after wards universally adopted. Irnerius, however, is a sort of mythical hero in university history, and such statements with regard to him must be received with caution. See PROMOTION. The university of Paris almost immediately followed in the footsteps of Bologna, the first reception of doctors having taken place in the year 1145, in favor of Peter Lombard and Gilbert de la Puree, the greatest theologians of the day. Subse quently to this period, the emperors were in use expressly to confer upon the universities the right of appointing doctors of laws by their authority and in their name. The example of the emperors was speedily followed by the popes, who conferred corre sponding rights with reference to the canon law. From the 11th to the 13th c., there seems reason to believe that, both in Italy and France, the terms master and doctor were pretty nearly synonymous. In the German universities, the professors of theology were more commonly known as masters; and in the beginning of the 15th c., in accordance with the practice of the university of Prague, the distinction was pretty consistently made between doctors of law and medicine, and masters of theology and philosophy. In modern times, the title of doctor has been applied almost everywhere to the three faculties of theology, law, and medicine. In Germany, it extends to that of philosophy, in which, in this country, the older title of master is still retained. The doctor's degree
is, in general, conferred at the instance of the dean of the faculty to which it appertains. It is granted either on examination, and after the -ancient form, at-least, of publicly some particular branch of learning, philosophy, or science. See DEGREE. In Germany, the doctor ranks before the untitled nobility and next to the knight; and amongst them selves, doctors take the rank of the faculties to which they respectively belong, the first being theology, the second law, and the third medicine. In Oxford and Cambridge, and recently also in the German universities, doctors of music have been created. In the latter country, also, learned ladies have occasionally shared the honors of the doc torate. Dorothea Schlozer received the degree of doctor of philosophy from the uni versity of Gottingen in 1787; Mariane Charlotte von that of medicine from Giessen in 1817; and Johanna Wittenbach, in philosophy, from Marbury in 1827. Of the four ancient degrees of bachelor (q.v.), master of arts (q.v.), licentiate (Qv.), and doctor, the modern university of France has retained only those of bachelor, licentiate, and doctor. Up to the period of the revolution, the highest consideration attached to the title of doctor of the sorbonne (q.v.)—that famous theological faculty, which was called "the perpetual council of the Galilean church," and of which the present faculty of theology of the academy of Paris is but a feeble and lifeless reproduction. But though the degrees of the sorbonne continued to enjoy, and apparently to merit, some degree of respect, such was by no means the case with those of the other schools of learning in France. Furettiere, in his dictionary, defines a bachelor as a man who learns, and a. doctor as a man who forgets. The ridicule of Voltaire, La Fontaine, Le Sage with his Doctor Sangrado, and Moliere in the Matade Imaginaire, will readily occur to our as illustrating the position which was then held very generally by French doctors.
In England, the doctor's degree was not introduced into the universities till the reign of John or of Henry III. At first it was a very rare and highly prized honor, and the ceremony of conferring it was attended by scenes of feasting and revelry, of which curious accounts will be found in Antony a Wood's History and Antiquities of the Uni versity of Oxford. Colored engravings of the dresses worn by doctors of the several faculties at Oxford and Cambridge are given in Ackermann's histories of these univer sities. As to professional uses of the degree of doctor of civil law, see DOCTORS.
ColimoNs.