Deposition (university) - Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

In the Middle Ages, the deposition was led by the Rector, as the students in question would live and study under monastery-like circumstances.

In the Early Modern period, as the schools lost their ecclesiastical character and their finances were reduced, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts (later called the Faculty of Philosophy) would take over the task. In this faculty, the basic scholarly concepts (septem artes liberales) were taught. The teachers and the Dean were, as a rule, students in the "higher" faculties of medicine, theology or law. It was during the Early Modern period that the custom of deposition slowly deteriorated into a farce. The position of depositor was taken over by the "pedell"; at the end of the 17th century, he would still demonstrate the tools and make out the deposition certificate for a fee.

In the 18th century, the responsibilities and duties of the depositor were still included in the statutes of a university determined by the ruler of the country. There were also detailed prescriptions on how to keep the tools.

The last known depositor at the University of Marburg was the pedell Johannes Georg Schimmelpfeng (1697–1785). In Jena, the deposition was abolished after the death of the last depositor in 1785. At the University of Leipzig, the deposition was prohibited by 1719, because of the excesses of the students.