With the dawn of the thirteenth century came the great revivalists--
the friars. Wherever the friars established themselves they began not
only to preach, but to teach. They were the awakeners of a new
intellectual life; not only the stimulators of an emotional pietism
always prone to run into religious intoxication and extravagance.
With the coming of the friars what may be called the modern history
of Cambridge begins. Not that it can be allowed that there were no
schools of repute on the banks of the Cam till the coming of the
friars; it is certain that learning had her home at Cambridge long
before this time.
As early as 1187 Giraldus Cambrensis came to Oxford and read his
_Expugnatio Hiberniae_ in public lectures, and entertained the
doctors of the diverse faculties and the most distinguished scholars.
[Footnote: Bishop Stubbs's "Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern
History," p. 141, 8vo, 1886.] Oxford was doubtless at that time more
renowned, but Cambridge followed not far behind. If the friars
settled at Cambridge early in their career, it was because there was
a suitable home for them there--an opening as we say--which the
flourishing condition of the University afforded. There were scholars
to teach, there were masters to dispute with, there were doctors to
criticize, oppose, or befriend. Doubtless, too, there were already
strained relations between the townsmen and the gownsmen at Cambridge
as at Oxford.
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