The title of History. Its purpose is to Show the conditions of medieval England Which shaped the University in its beginnings, and the intellectual needs which, in successive centuries, it was the aim of its benefactors and the founders of its colleges to satisfy. In the chapters which deal with post-reforma tion times I have made no continuous survey of the life and studies of the University, but have aimed at showing its character at certain epochs in its history, and its in?uences on some of its most eminent sons who have carried those in?uences into national Spheres of science or letters. Incidentally I have endeavoured to present a picture of men and manners at Cambridge at the time when it was known to each of these great men, and of scenes in college courts and.