hardly a great man. He wavered and hesitated between the effete popish system and the Reformation; he loved the new learning, but not the new, yet so old, Protestant faith; and so he has left only a tarnished and doubtful Christian fame. It may be said for him, however, that he almost revolutionised the Cambridge system, and was instrumental in carrying out many improvements. "About thirty years ago," thus wrote Erasmus to his friend Bovillus (Anglicè Bullock), "nothing was taught in the University of Cambridge except 'Alexander' (the middle age Latin poem of Walter de Castellio), the 'Parva Logicalia,' as they called them (a scholastic treatise written by Petrus Hispanus), and those old dictates of Aristotle and questions of Scotus. In process of time there was an accession of good learning: a knowledge of mathematics was introduced; then came in a new or at least a regenerated Aristotle; the knowledge of the Greek literature was added, with so many authors whose very names were not formerly known." Erasmus gives the credit of all this improvement to his great friend and patron, Bishop Fisher, but the largest proportion of it is justly due to himself. He led away the Cambridge students from the thorny and little profitable path of medieval scholasticism to the solid. knowledge of the classics and mathematics. The ancient system, however, lingered on for a long time.

CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE.

We now pass on to CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, which has an imposing frontage of large magnitude, not unlike, though on a smaller scale, that of Christ Church, Oxford. It is, indeed, exposed to the criticism of being in the impure style of modern Gothic, but the appearance is effective. The entrance gateway, facing St. Catherine's College, is very striking. The first court

is spacious and handsome, but the second court is more picturesque. Corpus has the distinction of having begun that series of new and extensive reconstructions which has been in progress with some intermission until the present time. The college was founded by the union and benevolence of two medieval guilds, which obtained a licence from Edward III. to institute and found a college under the name of "the house of scholars of Corpus Christi and Blessed Mary of Cambridge." The mayors and burgesses of Cambridge have given various benefactions. The advowson of the church of St. Benedict or St. Benet was made over to the college, and as the church was for a long time used as a college chapel, the name of St. Benet was familiarly given to the college. The true name has only been revived since the beginning of the century. The square tower at the west end of the church is the most ancient in the University; its windows have the round arches characteristic of what is called Anglo-Saxon architecture. The present chapel was erected in 1827, and the parish church was left exclusively to the use of the parish. The great cast window is filled with stained glass, purchased by the college at a great expense from a Dutch merchant, who collected it in the course of his travels on the Continent.

At the north end of the great quadrangle is the old court, which is said to retain more of its original features than any other court in the University. On the south is the original hall, now used as the college kitchen. This quadrangle has a very interesting appearance, with its massive buttresses and its ivy-covered walls. Some old and curious relics are preserved among the college plate: an antique drinking horn belonging to the old guild of Corpus Christi; the cup of the three kings ; a small bowl of dark wood mounted with silver; a magnificent ewer, basin, and cup; and thirteen silver-gilt spoons, terminated by figures of the Lord and the Twelve,

Corpus was at one time, of all the colleges, the largest owner of house property in Cambridge, which had the effect of making it extremely unpopular. On one occasion there was a great riot in the town, and some parchment charters belonging to the

University were burned. An old woman was observed to throw some ashes in the air, and at the same time to shout aloud with savage zeal, "Thus let the learning of all scholars be confounded." The college is now a flourishing institution, and is honourably

distinguished for educating poor young men, especially from our great cities. The hall is said to have been designed after the great hall at Kenilworth. It contains a few portraits, among which is that of Parker, the great benefactor of the college. In the Combination-room there is a copy, said to be by Poussin, of Raffael's School of Athens. In the Master's Lodge we have Parker again, with other valuable historical portraits.

Matthew Parker, the famous archbishop, was master of Corpus, and left the college his invaluable collection of manuscripts. They are guarded with jealous care, not even a Fellow is permitted to inspect them unless he is accompanied by another Fellow or by a scholar. There is much reason for this strictness, for they are subject to a yearly visitation by two Masters of other colleges, and if twenty-five books be missing, the whole collection devolves on Caius College. The archbishop also gave the college some rich presents of plate, said to be of German workmanship, curiously stamped and enamelled. The library in which the Parker manuscripts are kept is a lofty and very interesting room. Parker's original manuscript of the Thirtynine Articles, with the autographs of the bishops, is here. The other manuscripts were mainly rescued by him from the despoiled libraries of the dissolved monasteries. One of these is a copy of the Four Gospels, believed on good grounds to have been sent by Pope Gregory to Augustine. Tischendorff examined it when at Cambridge, and has made the confirmatory note that it closely resembled an Italian manuscript of the sixth century. A catalogue of the library was compiled and published in 1777 by a Fellow of the college.

Another Master of the Elizabethan times was one Dr. Jegon, a man of much strictness. Some of the foundation scholars had committed an offence for which they were heavily fined, and the money was devoted to various necessary repairs of the

buildings. Soon after Dr. Jegon found a sort of pasquinade posted up, on which was written,

"Dr. Jegon, Bene't College Master,

Broke the scholars' heads and gave the wall a plaster."

The doctor wrote underneath,

"Knew I but the wag that wrote this verse in bravery,

I'd commend him for his wit, but whip him for his knavery."

Sir Nicholas Bacon, Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper, and the father of that great Lord Chancellor who has been also called "the Chancellor of human nature," belonged to this college. Among the eminent members of Corpus were Fletcher, and Christopher Marlowe, dramatists; Spencer, the great scholar and divine, who wrote 'De Legibus Hebræorum;' the Archbishops Tenison, and Herring, Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, and Samuel Wesley, the father of John and Charles Wesley.

CHRIST'S COLLEGE.

The Lady Margaret, of whom we have spoken in connection with the foundation of St. John's College, was the presiding genius of CHRIST'S COLLege. Her great son, the seventh Henry, claimed and won the throne of England in his mother's right, and every learned and grateful alumnus of her two foundations at Cambridge reverences with an almost personal devotion the memory of their gracious foundress. The men of Christ's are certainly not unmindful of her, nor ungrateful. Her sweet, sad, serious countenance looks down upon them in the hall; it graces the Combination-room; it is found in the college chapel. On the carved elaborate stonework of the gateway, which closely resembles the gateway of St. John's, are the Lady Margaret's arms and supporters-crowned roses and