10. Whoever specially cared to have a ticket in advance could do so for a small tax, as thereby he would be examined sooner; but those who paid no tax had to be the last, generally; no great care was taken about their examination, and usually they received no certificate. These were of course promised to them for a later date, but generally nothing resulted from these promises.

11. However it sometimes happened that boys of very great intelligence and much talent, put questions to the examiners, and asked them for explanations about one thing or another concerning the prophets. On such occasions there were then angry and ill-humored faces among the examiners; for they seldom knew more of he Scriptures and of the prophets than nowadays very meagerly-paid teachers. They knew only as much as they had to ask; further than this the outlook was generally very dark.