The Licence in Theology was one of two courses (the other being the Bachelor of Arts degree course) offered by Durham University at its opening in 1833 and was first awarded in 1834. It required both the passing of an academic examination and a testimonial to the candidate's moral character. The course initially had a standard length of two years, reduced to one for graduates of Oxford and Cambridge (and, soon after, for Durham graduates); this was raised to three years for 1841–1846, but this led to a serious fall in numbers and it returned to two years from 1846.[1][2] It ran in a variety of different forms, including being offered with honours for a period from 1864 to 1907 (when the honours course in theology leading to a BA was established).