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 though the circle of those interested in them became continually larger, could not exercise such a widespread or popular influence as once belonged to the old mediaeval studies. The strongholds of humanism, again, the Colleges,—as their permanent character, their wealth, and the ability of their administrators gradually made them predominant,—represented an aristocratic or at least oligarchic agency, engrafted upon the once democratic existence of the mediaeval University. Thus, in the second half of the fifteenth century, internal causes were tending to detach the Universities from the general life of the nation, while at the same time the number of other interests and careers was expanding.

The early years of the sixteenth century are made memorable for Cambridge by the residence here of Erasmus, from the end of 1510 to the end of 1513. In his earlier stay at Oxford, he had enjoyed most congenial and instructive friendships; but here, at least, he did some of his ripest and hardest work,—kindling the minds of disciples, too, who carried on the tradition. It was in the old tower of Queens' College that he completed a collation of the Greek text of the New Testament; and four years later his edition—the first ever published—appeared at Basle. It was in this University, and in the years just after the visit of Erasmus, that the Reformation had its English birth. It was a time, too, when Cambridge men were zealously continuing those classical studies in which the Hellenists of Oxford had been pioneers. It is