I was searching for information about the gauntlet in house Jerbiton. In HoH:Societates I couldn´t find any information about it. In the Atlas Games Forum all I could detect was this:
O.K., but what does this mean: "an examination which always has the same questions"? (What kind of question are that? How many? etc.) I looked for something similar by Confucius, but are not sure. Does someone has an example for such a recurrent question or an example for a similar examination in "confucian style"?
The introduction to the 4th edition rulebook has the diary of a Jerbiton apprentice. This is what he writes about the Gauntlet:
"I passed. I thought I had failed when I was asked about the relationship between the Platonic forms and the Forms of Hermetic magic, as I had always regarded the latter as more similar to Aristotelian forms. I said so, and it must have been the right answer."
If my memory serves me right the Houses of Hermes sourcebook* for 4th ed (or was it 3rd?) had in the chapter for each house some notes about Gauntlet. I think the Guernici had a written examination on legal subjects, while Bonisagi had one on magic theory. Jerbiton I don't remember at all. Flambeau were dropped off with no equipment in a hostile of difficult place and needed to get to Tribunal within a tight time frame for their official swearing of the oath. I think the Tytalus chapter had an anecdote about an apprentice needing to get a chest open, and he tried everything he could, all magic was resisted - but in the end it was not locked at all.
*) I refer to the later one, not to be confused with 'Order of Hermes' for 2nd ed, which had much of the same material as Houses of Hermes (except updated to newer edition) plus some things later found in updated versions in Wizard's Grimoire Revised Ed (for 4th) which most likely also means it was in the Grimoire for 3rd.
Anyway, both are good books for material on the houses, although several houses have changed a bit since 2nd ed.
The 5th edition book "Apprentices" has a discussion of the Gauntlets for every House. There, Jerbiton's entry discusses only the Itinerarium, the trip which apprentices take with a mature magus acting as escort and guide; stops used to include Constantinople but, since the Fall, Paris, Rome and Venice have become popular substitutes. No mention is made in Apprentices of the actual exam itself, whatever form it might take.
I'm running an apprentice game right now and, unfortunately, I don't have any Jerbiton magi. If I did, I think I would de-emphasize actual magical knowledge as part of the Gauntlet. After all, House Jerbiton doesn't really place that great of an emphasis on high Arts and they are infamous for having magi with lower-than-typical Int and Magic Theory scores. Instead, what is required is that the young magus have developed some sense of personal taste or aesthetic. There are a lot of answers to "What is beauty?" but it is important for a new Jerbiton to have some kind of answer to that question, an answer which is palatable to the rest of the House.
That's the form of Gauntlet I would do for House Jerbiton. Make them write an art critique or something.
I'm not keen on the idea that it's always the same questions. That would seem to fly in the face of the idea of advances in mundane scholarship and Hermetic Theory, and it takes no account of the latest discoveries of 'lost' classical texts that are being translated into Latin.
Always using the same questions does not mean that the same answers are accepted for everyone. Arts and philosophy must be understood and felt, not simply learned by rote.
In this way, the Jerbiton gauntlet is similar to what Criamon magi teach. IMHO.
According to HoH:S, House Jerbiton has very little structure, at least at the House level ('Such Structure as the House Has' is the title of one of the parts of the Chapter). Add the fact that arranging the Gauntlet is the master's responsibility, not the House's, and I think the Gauntlet of House Jerbiton might in fact be quite varied. The most likely setting would be a gathering of like-minded Jerbiton who take the opportunity to examine the apprentice's worthiness, either from his artistic creation or performance (for an artistically inclined Jerbiton), or by an examination of his knowledge (for a scholarly one), or by having the master turn some of the responsibility for organizing the gathering to the apprentice thus demonstrating his ability to deal with mundanes and/or other Jerbiton... the section on Leagues is full of interesting ideas for this last part.