St. Mary the Virgin and the Birth of the Public Sphere.

The article discusses the significance of the disputation in Elizabethan universities. The author explains that this genre has largely been ignored because it was rarely recorded and spoken in Latin. The author addresses the occasions and format of disputations, which were required for most university degrees. The author explains that debates were part of the public sphere. Subjects of the article also include why the debates were tolerated, the role of formal debates, and some common topics of the debates.