Chapter II: Preface: v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

CHAPTER I

LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1

Geographical and commercial importance of the city site--Map of the county a palimpsest--Glamour of the Fenland--Cambridge the gateway of East Anglia--The Roman roads--The Roman station--The Castle Hill--Stourbridge Fair--Cambridge a chief centre of English commerce.

CHAPTER II

CAMBRIDGE IN THE NORMAN TIME 22

William I. at Cambridge Castle--Cambridge at the Domesday Survey--Roger Picot the Sheriff--Pythagoras School--Castle and Borough--S. Benet's Church and its Parish--The King's Ditch--The Great and the Small Bridges--The King's and the Bishop's Mills--The River Hythes--S. Peter by the Castle and S. Giles Church--The early Streets of the City--The Augustinian Priory of Barnwell--The Round Church of the Holy Sepulchre--The Cambridge Jewry--Debt of early Scholars to the Philosophers of the Synagogue--Benjamin's House--Municipal Freedom of the Borough.

CHAPTER III

THE BEGINNINGS OF UNIVERSITY LIFE 49

Monastic Origins--Continuity of Learning in Early England--The School of York--The Venerable Bede--Alcuin and the Schools of Charles the Great--The Danish Invasions--The Benedictine Revival--The Monkish Chroniclers--The Coming of the Friars--The Franciscan and Dominican Houses at Cambridge--The Franciscan Scholars--Roger Bacon--Bishop Grosseteste--The New Aristotle and the Scientific Spirit--The Scholastic Philosophy--Aquinas--Migration of Scholars from Paris to Cambridge--The term "University"--The Colleges and the Hostels--The Course of Study--Trivium and Quadrivium--The Four Faculties--England a Paradise of Clerks--Parable of the Monk's Pen.

CHAPTER IV

THE EARLIEST COLLEGE FOUNDATION: PETERHOUSE 71

The Early Monastic Houses in Cambridge--Student Proselytising by the Friars--The Oxford College of Merton a Protest against this Tendency--The Rule of Merton taken as a Model by Hugh de Balsham, Founder of Peterhouse--The Hospital of S. John--The Scholars of Ely--Domestic Economy of the College--The Dress of the Mediæval Student--Peterhouse Buildings--Little S. Mary's Church--The Perne Library--The College Chapel.

CHAPTER V

THE COLLEGES OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 93

The Fourteenth Century an Age of Great Men and Great Events but not of Great Scholars--Petrarch and Richard of Bury--Michael House--The King's Scholars--King's Hall--Clare Hall--Pembroke College--Gonville Hall--Dr. John Caius--His Three Gates of Humility, Virtue, and Honour.

CHAPTER VI

THE COLLEGE OF THE CAMBRIDGE GUILDS 120

Unique Foundation of Corpus Christi College--The Cambridge Guilds--The influence of "the Good Duke"--The Peasant Revolt--Destruction of Charters--"Perish the skill of the Clerks!"--The Black Death--Lollardism at the Universities--The Poore Priestes of Wycliffe.

CHAPTER VII

TWO ROYAL FOUNDATIONS 137

Henry VI--The most pitiful Character in all English History--His devotion to Learning and his Saintly Spirit--His foundation of Eton and King's College--The Building of King's College Chapel--Its architect, Reginald of Ely, the Cathedral Master-Mason--Its relation to the Ely Lady Chapel--Its stained glass Windows--Its close Foundation--Queens' College--Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Wydville--The buildings of Queens'--Similarity to Haddon Hall--Its most famous Resident, Erasmus--His _Novum Instrumentum_ edited within its Walls.

CHAPTER VIII

TWO OF THE SMALLER HALLS 173

The Foundation of Trinity Hall by Bishop Bateman of Norwich--On the Site of the Hostel of Student-Monks of Ely--Prior Crauden--Evidence of the Ely Obedientary Rolls--The College Buildings--The Old Hall--S. Edward's Church used as College Chapel--Hugh Latimer's Sermon on a Pack of Cards--Harvey Goodwin--Frederick Maurice--The Hall Library--Its ancient Bookcases--The Foundation of S. Catherine's Hall.

CHAPTER IX

BISHOP ALCOCK AND THE NUNS OF S. RHADEGUND 183

The New Learning in Italy and Germany--The English "Pilgrim Scholars": Grey, Tiptoft, Linacre, Grocyn--The practical Genius of England--Bishops Rotherham, Alcock, and Fisher--Alcock, diplomatist, financier, architect--The Founder of Jesus College--He takes as his model Jesus College, Rotherham--His Object the Training of a Preaching Clergy--The Story of the Nunnery of S. Rhadegund--Its Dissolution--Conversion of the Conventual Church into a College Chapel--The Monastic Buildings, Gateway, Cloister, Chapter House--The Founder a Better Architect than an Educational Reformer--The Jesus Roll of eminent Men from Cranmer to Coleridge.

CHAPTER X

COLLEGES OF THE NEW LEARNING 210

The Lady Margaret Foundations--Bishop Fisher of Rochester--The Foundation of Christ's--God's House--The buildings of the new College--College Worthies--John Milton--Henry More--Charles Darwin--The Hospital of the Brethren of S. John--Death of the Lady Margaret--Foundation of S. John's College--Its buildings--The Great Gateway--The new Library--The Bridge of Sighs--The Wilderness--Wordsworth's "Prelude"--The aims of Bishop Fisher--His death.

CHAPTER XI

A SMALL AND A GREAT COLLEGE 246

Dissolution of the Monasteries--Schemes for Collegiate Spoliation checked by Henry VIII.--Monks' or Buckingham College--Refounded by Sir Thomas Audley as Magdalene College--Conversion of the old buildings--The Pepysian Library--Foundation of Trinity College--Michaelhouse and the King's Hall--King Edward's Gate--The Queen's Gate--The Great Gate--Dr. Thomas Neville--The Great Court--The Hall--Neville's Court--New Court--Dr. Bentley--"A House of all Kinds of Good Letters."