In protest at the hanging the University of Oxford went into voluntary suspension and the great majority of scholars migrated to Paris, to reading and to Cambridge.
Cambridge was a thriving community in 1201 and 1207. It was the market for immediate are, as well as being an emporium for commerce throughout the Fenlands.
The band of scholars trudging into Cambridge, some were from important Cambridge families included among their number, quite possible as their leader, John Grim. John Grim, doctor of theology, was master of the schools of Oxford in 1201.
The University of Cambridge began ex-nihilo with a handful of masters from Oxford who arrived down the Huntingdon Road, cross the bridge and started in rented lodgings in the neighborhood of Great St. Mary’s Church.
By 1225 at the latest they had achieved sufficient status as a corporation to have a chancellor with powers delegated by the bishop of Ely.
In 1290 a letter form Pope Nicholas IV addressed to the canons of the Order of Sempringham, some of whom were studying in Cambridge, described the school as a studium generale.
The rights and judicial identity of Cambridge were further strengthened by a bull of Pope Gregory IX in 1233, given at the request of the university.
Addressed to the ‘Chancellor and University of Cambridge’, it acknowledge their university status and gave them the ius non trahi extra, which prohibited any court outside of the diocese from summoning a member of the university, provided he appeared before the chancellor or his bishop.
The first college, Porterhouse, modeled on Walter de Merton’s Oxford foundation, was established in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, bishop of Ely, under royal license.
University of Cambridge: The origin
Notes:
ex-nihilo = out of nothing
Studium generale = the old customary name for a Medieval university
ius non trahi extra = a right to discipline its own members
