In Thomas Hardy’s classic Victorian novel Jude the Obscure, the titular Jude Fawley, a low-born but intelligent working-class young man, has ambitious visions of entering into the dreaming spires of Christminster, a fictional institution of learning standing in for the real-life Oxford University. Yet Jude is aware that, no matter how promising the raw material of his innate intelligence, he would be ineligible for entry: for he is unable to recite or read the Gospels in Greek.
Jude’s plight was based upon genuine Oxford entry requirements during the period Hardy’s novel was set. Well into Hardy’s lifetime, it was not possible to qualify for a BA Degree from Oxford without demonstrating close knowledge of the Good Book in Greek translation, together with the 39 Articles of the Church of England.
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