“From the end of the 12th century until the Reformation the monasteries remained magnificent hostelries; their churches were splendid chapels for noble patrons; their inhabitants were bachelor country gentlemen, more polished and charitable, but little more learned or pure in life than their lay neighbours, their estates were well managed.... But with a few noble exceptions there was nothing in the system that did spiritual service. Books were multiplied, but learning declined; prayers were offered unceasingly but the efficacious energy of real devotion was not found in the homes that it had reared.”--Bishop STUBBS. But the coming of the Dominicans and of the Franciscans later in the 13th century brought new light into the Church. These orders differed from the earlier orders in that they had at first no settled homes of their own. The Dominicans inspired the desire of learning, and becoming teachers at the Universities, trained up many of the future clergy of the Church. The Franciscans, though at first professing to despise learning and devoting themselves more to evangelistic work among the poorer classes, soon followed the example set them by the Dominicans and eventually became the most learned body of men in England, greatly extending their influence over political matters. But unfortunately, as time went on, the Friars succumbed to temptation in its various forms, and degeneration set in amongst them as it had in the older orders. The reforms of Wycliffe and his party, known as the Lollards, in the 15th century, are too familiar to need description. In 1416 the alien Priories--houses dependent on foreign monasteries, having sprung up as a result of the Norman Conquest--were suppressed, and as it was deemed politic in the following reign to use the property and money thus gained for religious purposes, Henry VI. founded Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge. University life grew and prospered in the 15th century, and the introduction of printing into England greatly furthered the advance of knowledge.