Historiae Cantebrigiensis Academiae ab urbe condita, liber primus [-secundus]

...was. In his age, there were three kinds of men at Cambridge: Scholars, Citizens, and Athletes. Furthermore, the charm of the air, the fertility of the place, the brilliance of the sciences, and the supreme kindness of others, as well as of the great Prince Cassivellaunus, increased the city and the city's fame. Aluredus, in his second book, is the author that 322 years intervened between him and the origin of the city. For his indulgence to all fugitives and criminals, who would flee there for the study of letters, allowed for the security of their lives and those of their families, a safe port and asylum from enemies. From this occasion, not only young men but also old men from every region of the world flocked there. Thus, when the Academy was flourishing, after the Roman military had been defeated 60 years before the birth of Christ by Cassivellaunus, or rather by the treachery of the nephew Androgeus, who had been made a tributary, Caesar prepared a journey to Rome with Androgeus; and he took with him some of the chief men of the Academy to Rome, where they were distinguished by the great celebrity of their name and the profession of their arts, and they became the authors of renewing the study at Rome, which is said to have begun from the remnants of Athens 700 years before Christ. I do not mean that school which the King of the Britons, Ine, had established at Rome with the consent of Pope Gregory when he was dealing with Rome, and which he called the School of the English. For that school was not built for the sake of all disciplines, but only for the sake of religion, so that the King of England, Ine, and the royal family, along with bishops, priests, and clerics, could gather there for the sake of learning the doctrine and the catholic faith. For which reason, at the request of Aluredus, King of the West Saxons, Martin the Roman Pontiff made it immune from taxes in the year of our Lord 883, although today it is called not the School of the English, but the Hospital of the English. The Mercian King Burrhedus was buried in it, by the account of Patricius the consul, in the year of our Lord 875. "Burrhedus," he says, "King of the Mercians..."

Three kinds of men in Cambridge.

Cassivellaunus.

Aluredus.

School of the English at Rome, why it was instituted.