t.

Roger Bacon is supposed to have known the properties of gunpowder as
early as 1250, but no practical use was made of the discovery until
the battle of Cre'cy, 1346, when a few very small cannon are said to
have been employed by the English against the enemy's cavalry. Later,
cannon were used to throw heavy stones in besieging castles. Still
later, rude handguns came slowly into use. From this period kings
gradually began to realize the full meaning of the harmless-looking
black grains, with whose flash and noise the Oxford monk had amused
himself.

The chief wars of the time were the contests between the kings and the
barons, Richard I's Crusade, John's war with France, resulting in the
loss of Normandy, Edward I's conquest of Wales and temporary
subjugation of Scotland, and the beginning of the Hundred Years' War
with France under Edward III.

The navy of this period was made up of small, one-masted vessels,
seldom carrying more than a hundred and fifty fighting men. As the
mariner's compass had now come into general use, these vessels could,
if occasion required, make voyages of considerable length.

IV. Literature, Learning, and Art

271. Education.

In 1264 Walter de Merton founded the first college at Oxford, an
institution which has ever since borne his name, and which really
originated the English college system. During the reign of Edward
III, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, gave a decided impulse
to higher education by the establishment, at his own expense, of
Winchester College, the first great public school founded in England.
Later, he built and endowed New College at Oxford to supplement it.

In Merton's and Wykeham's institutions young men of small means were
instructed, and in great measure supported, without charge. They were
brought together under one roof, require to conform to proper
discipline, and taught by the best teachers of the day. In this way a
general feeling of emulation was roused, and at the same time a
fraternal spirit cultivated, which had a strong influence in favor of
a broader and deeper intellectual culture than the monastic schools at
Oxford and elsewhere had encouraged.

272. Literature.

The most prominent historical work was that by Matthew Paris, a monk
of St. Alban's, written in Latin, based largely on earlier chronicles,
and covering the period from the Norman Conquest, 1066, to his death,
in 1259. It is a work of much value, and was continued