years; or at least, according to the regime of the university, it must be four years from the time when he was of standing to take that degree. In Cambridge, unless under certain circumstances, if the candidate be a bachelor of divinity, he must have been so five years. In Oxford, during solemn assemblies, or processions of the university, the doctor's dress-gown is of scarlet, with wide black velvet-sleeves from the thickest part of the arm to the wrist; it is without a cape; but has a button and loop to secure the scarf; and is likewise accompanied by the hood of scarlet cloth, lined with black silk. His cap, on such occasions, is round, of black velvet, and not much unlike unlike in shape to that which is at present worn by his majesty's yeomen of the guard. The ordinary gown is black, either of crape, silk, or prince's stuff; it is without a cape, and is exactly similar in form to that which is worn by masters of arts, except that it has a button and loop for the scarf which is only worn by doctors. The sleeves reach nearly to the ground, and are scooped away at the end, but have a cross slit about the centre to put the arms through. The hood shewn in the engraving is the distinction of a doctor of divinity in both of our universities. A CLERGYMAN A CLERGYMAN in FULL ORDERS. In the general acceptation of the word, priests are any ministers of a church but in the more particular one, it implies those who are admitted to the full or second degree of holy orders. In conferring holy orders, the church of England preserves but two distinctions, while those in the Romish church were seven. The first degree is that of deacon. Deacons were originally instituted with no other functions than to assist the priest at the altar. By the regulations of the church, a deacon must be be of the age of twenty-three at his admission. He is allowed to baptize, to catechize, to preach, to assist in the administration of the sacrament, to solemnize matrimony, and to inter the dead; but he can neither consecrate the sacred elements or read the absolution, these being the peculiar duties of the priest, or clergyman in full orders. Nor can a deacon, as such, be instituted to a living. To be admitted to the ecclesiastical functions in their full extent, as well by the canons of the church as by an act of Queen Elizabeth, a man must be twenty-four. Though, anciently, when there were more degrees of holy orders in the church, |