VI PREFACE. The transformation of the University into a confederation of Colleges, and the extinction of the class of non- collegiate students, might well have come about in the natural course of things, and as part of the process of evolution. That its coming was accelerated, and that it was effected at last under some external compulsion, was no doubt a con- sequence of the social and political changes produced by the Reformation. Of the secular Colleges, ten only had been established before the end of the fifteenth century. To these no fewer than six were added In the sixteenth. But it is noticeable that, with the exception of Corpus, every one of the new Colleges took the place of some older house of learning. Brasenose College, founded in 1509, was the direct successor of Brasenose Hall, the Principal of which society was transferred to his new headship without change of title. Christ Church represents not only St. Frideswide's, but also Canterbury College and Peckwater Inn. Trinity took possession of the buildings of Durham College : St. John's of those of St. Bernard's : Wadham was erected on the site of the House of Austin Friars l. Jesus succeeded to the empty body of White Hall, almost before the breath was out of it. This large increase in the number of Colleges, accompanied by and closely connected with the disappearance of other rival institutions, could not but have a serious effect on the consti- tution of the academical republic. The Heads of Houses, each clothed with large powers over his own society, possessed col- lectively a weight of authority which would in any case have given them a predominant control over the government of the University. Not only for political reasons, but from other and more generous motives, Elizabeth and her ministers desired to maintain an effective control over the great seats of learning : and in the Heads of Colleges they found the instrument that 1 St. Mary's College in St. Michael's parish was dependent on the Order of Austin Canons, and perished in the Suppression. No benefactor appeared to re-establish its academical position. Its modern name, Frewin Hall, was not given to it till the reign of George the Second, when its site was occupied as the private residence of a physician.