Balliol was an early friend to the new learning, and fostered the scholarly tastes of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, son of Henry IV., and Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester (to name but two of her most prominent humanists). Duke Humphrey left his books to the University, six hundred in number--a very large collection for those days, when as yet Caxton had not revolutionised the world. And in Reformation days, when the humanities were called to account, learning found a zealous supporter in Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, who had been bred at Balliol. [Illustration: 0110] [Illustration: 0111] The annals of the College during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are not particularly distinguished. After the Restoration Balliol men seem to have been considerably addicted to malt liquors, and much ale does not conduce to profound study. But modern Balliol men might apply to their own use the words of Dr. Ingram's famous song, "Who fears to speak of '98?" for it was in 1798 that Dr. Parsons became Master of the College, and with his advent began the great days of Balliol. Parsons, with two other heads of houses, established the Examination system, which has been so much belauded and so much abused. It was soon apparent that Balliol tutors had the knack of equipping men to face the ordeal of "the Schools"; the College speedily came to the front, and its intellectual pre-eminence in Oxford during the nineteenth century is now universally admitted. Men trained at Balliol during this period occupied and still occupy some of the very highest positions in the State. Not to mention the living, whose fame is in the mouths of all men, some of the most prominent names are those of Lords Coleridge, Bowen, and Peel (formerly Speaker of the House of Commons), Sir Robert Morier, and Archbishop Temple. Matthew Arnold and Clough were undergraduates at Balliol with Benjamin Jowett, afterwards its most famous Master; and, to balance the severity of these poets, the lighter Muse of Calverley sojourned for a time within its walls.