Alma Mater
After the matriculation examinations, which were administered at the uni-
versityandcalledthe“firstexamination,”thereawaitedthe“secondexami-
nation,”formidablytitledthe“examenphilologico-philosophicum.”Thisexam-
ination was subdivided into two parts: the linguistic portion, which Søren
Aabye passed on April 25, 1831, receivinglaudabilisin Latin, Greek, He-
brew, and history, andlaudabilis præ ceterisin elementary mathematics; and
the philosophical portion, which Søren Aabye took on October 27 of that
year, receiving four splendidpræs in theoretical and practical philosophy,
physics, and higher mathematics. It was not written in the stars that Søren
Aabye would study theology, but if one bears in mind the important place
of religion in the family home, it was more or less in the cards.
During this period the theology faculty left a lot to be desired and was
pretty close to meriting a failing grade. The corps of professors consisted of
the superannuated Jens Møller, of who mit has fittingly been said that he
was less a “producer of original work than a reproducer of the work of
others, but as such he was incomparable”; the slightly anonymous M. H.
Hohlenberg, who was in charge of instruction in Hebrew; and finally
H.N.Clausen,theonlypointofintellectuallight,aneffectiveadministrator
who served for a number of years as rector of the university and was well
liked by the students. Like most of his colleagues, Clausen was a rationalist,
but he had followed Schleiermacher’s lectures in Berlin and was now at-
tempting to unify Schleiermacher’s more emotionally tinged concept of
faith with a critical view of ecclesiastical tradition.
During the first years, Søren Aabye was a reasonably energetic student,
and a look at the surviving participant lists for theology and philosophy
lectures allows us to track the progress of his studies. We do not know
which lectures he attended during his first two semesters, but in the winter
semester (November 1–March 31) of 1832–33 his name appears on the
participant lists for Clausen’s lectures on the synoptic Gospels. During the
summer semester (May 1–September 30) of 1833 he attended Clausen’s
lectures on New Testament hermeneutics and Hohlenberg’s lecture series
onGenesisandIsaiah.Theparticipantlistsforthewintersemesterof1833–
34aremissing,butfromSørenAabye’snotesitcanbeseenthathefollowed
Clausen’s interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles and recently appointed
Professor C. T. Engelstoft’s lectures on the Gospel of John. It is likely that
during this semester and the subsequent one he followed Clausen’s exposi-
tion of the first and second portions of his dogmatics. During the following
{1813–1834} 29