which Defoe thought the greatest in Europe, may have helped to locate
the University there. Exactly when or how the first little centre of
learning was established in the town is still a matter of uncertainty,
but there seems to have been some strong influence emanating from the
Continent in the twelfth century which encouraged the idea of
establishing monastic schools. Cambridge in quite early times began to
be sprinkled with small colonies of canons and friars, and in these
religious hostels the young monks from the surrounding abbeys were
educated. Mr. A.H. Thompson, in his _Cambridge and its Colleges_,
suggests that the unhealthy dampness of the fens would have made it
very desirable that the less robust of the youths who were training
for the cloistered life in the abbeys of East Anglia should be
transferred to the drier and healthier town, where the learning of
France was available among the many different religious Orders
represented there.

In 1284 the first college was founded on an academic basis. This was
Peterhouse. Its founder was Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, who had
made the experiment of grafting secular scholars among the canons of
St. John's Hospital, afterwards the college. Finding it difficult to
reconcile the difficulties which arose between secular and religious,
he transferred his lay scholars, or Ely clerks, to two hostels at the
opposite end of the town, and at his death left 300 marks to build a
hall where they could meet and dine. After this beginning there were
no imitators until forty years had elapsed, but then colleges began to
spring up rapidly. In 1324 Michael House was founded, and following it
came six more in quick succession: Clare in 1326, King's Hall in 1337,
Pembroke in 1347, Gonville Hall in 1348, Trinity Hall in 1350, and
Corpus Christi in 1352. These constitute the first period of
college-founding, separated from the succeeding by nearly a century.