DOCTOR, denoting etymologically a teacher, is the title conferred by the highest university degree. Originally there were only two steps in graduation, those of bachelor and master, and the title doctor was given to certain masters as an alternative or as a merely honorary appellation. It is in this sense that the word is to be understood in the phrase Doctor Angelicus applied to Aquinas, and in many other familiar instances of a similar kind. The process by which the doctorate became established as a third degree, distinct from and superior to that of master, cannot be very clearly traced. At Bologna it seems to have been conferred in the faculty of law as early as the 12th century, but there is no sufficient authority for the statement commonly made that the celebrated Irnerius drew up the formulary for the ceremonial, and that Bulgarus was the first who took the degree. Paris, the other great university of the Middle Ages, conferred the degree in the faculty of divinity, according to Antony Wood, some time after 1150, the earliest recipients being Peter Lombard and Gilbert de la Portree. In England the degree was introduced in the reign of John or of Henry III. Both in England and on the Continent it was confined for a considerable period to the faculties of law and divinity; it was not until the 14th century that it began to be conferred in medicine, and in England it is still unknown in the faculty of arts. In Germany, however, there is a degree of doctor of philosophy. The doctorate of music was first conferred at Oxford and Cambridge; its use in Germany is comparatively recent. See Universities.
DOCTORS’ COMMONS was a society of ecclesiastical lawyers in London, forming a distinct profession for the practice of the civil and canon laws. Some members of the profession purchased in 1567 a site near St Paul's, on which at their own expense they erected houses for the residence of the judges and advocates, and proper buildings for holding the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. "In the year 1768 a royal charter was obtained by virtue of which the then members of the society and their successors were incorporated under the name and title of The College of Doctors of Law exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts. The college consists of a president (the dean of Arches for the time being) and of those doctors of law who, having regularly taken that degree in either of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, and having been admitted advocates in pursuance of the rescript of the archbishop of Canterbury, shall have been elected fellows in the manner prescribed by the charter." The judges of the archiepiscopal courts were always selected from this college. By 20 and 21 Vict. c. 77 (the Act to amend the law relating to Probate and Letters of Administration) 1 16 and 117, the college is empowered to sell its real and personal estate and to surrender its charter to Her Majesty, and it is enacted that on such surrender the college shall be dissolved and the property thereof shall belong to the then existing members as tenants in common for their own use and benefit. In pursuance of this enactment the college has been dissolved and the ecclesiastical courts are now open to the whole bar.
DOCTRINAIRES, the name applied by its opponents to a small but very influential political party in France which made itself prominent after the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815. The doctrine or fundamental principle on which its action was based was that the sole justification of any form of government was the manner in which it exercised its power. Rejecting the claim of divine right, whether urged for monarchy or for republicanism, the doctrinaires were opposed alike to the ultra-royalists and to the revolutionists. In the chamber they occupied the left centre, and thus marked themselves out from the centre or ministerialist and the left or opposition party. While maintaining the re-established dynasty their efforts were mainly directed towards moulding the constitution into a shape resembling as nearly as possible that of England. The leaders of the doctrinaires were Royer- Collard, the Due de Broglie, and Guizot. After the revolution of 1830 several of them came into power and proved strong supporters of constitutional monarchy on the model that has existed in England since the reign of William. The name doctrinaires fell entirely out of use after 1848, but the principles of the party have been faith fully represented since that date by the Orleanists. See France.
DODD, Dr William (1729–1777), an unfortunate English divine, eldest son of the Rev. William Dodd, many years vicar of Bourne, in Lincolnshire was born there in May 1729. He was sent, at the age of sixteen, to the university of Cambridge, where he was admitted a sizar of Clare Hall in 1745. He took the degree of B.A. in 1750, being in the list of wranglers. On leaving the university, he married a young woman of the name of Perkins, the daughter of a verger. She had a more than questionable reputation, and her extravagant habits contributed in no small degree to her husband s dis grace and ruin. In 1751 he was ordained deacon, and in 1753 priest, and he soon became a popular and celebrated preacher. His first preferment was the lecture ship of West-Ham and Bow. In 1754 he was also chosen lecturer of St Olave s, Hart Street; and in 1757 he took the degree of M.A. at Cambridge. He was a strenuous supporter of the Magdalen Hospital, which was founded in 1758, and soon afterwards became preacher at the chapel of that charity. In 1763 he obtained a prebend at Brecon, and in the same year he was appointed one of the king s chaplains, soon after which the education of Philip Stan hope, afterwards earl of Chesterfield, was committed to his care. In 1766 he went to Cambridge, and took the degree of LL.D. At this period he was held in high estimation ; but eager for further advancement, he un happily entered on courses which in the end proved the occasion of his ruin. On the living of St George's, Hanover Square, becoming vacant, he wrote an anonymous letter to the wife of the lord chancellor offering three thousand guineas if, by her assistance, he was promoted to the benefice. This letter having been traced to him, a com plaint was immediately made to the king, and he was dismissed with disgrace from his office of chaplain. After residing for some time at Geneva and Paris, he returned to England in 1776. He still continued to exercise his clerical functions, but his extravagant mode of life soon involved him in difficulties. To meet the demands of his creditors he forged a bond on his former pupil Lord Chesterfield for 4200, and actually received the money. But he was detected, committed to prison, tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty, and sentenced to death; and, in spite of numerous applications for mercy, he was executed at Tyburn on the 27th June 1777. Dr Samuel Johnson was very zealous in pleading for a pardon, and a petition from the city of London received 23,000 signatures. Dr Dodd was a voluminous writer, and possessed considerable abilities, with but little judgment and much vanity. His Beauties of Shakespeare, published before he entered the church, was long a well-known work ; and his Thoughts in Prison, a poem in blank verse, written in the interval betvreen his conviction and his execution, naturally attracted much attention. He published a large number of sermons and other theological works. An accurate list of his various writings is prefixed to his Thoughts in Prison.
