The “Public” Contribution of Universities in an Increasingly Global World

Introduction In 1529, the great monasteries of England and the nearly 400 parallel but smaller establishments had never looked so good. ey were doubly protected, by universal belief and by a multitude of material connections into English society, the economy, politics, and the court, which made them necessary to daily life. Monasteries were centers of farming and cra¦ production and the source of community welfare. ey were way stations for travelers across the land. ey provided valued careers for younger sons. Cathedrals loomed over the landscape. Holders of vast wealth and power, the monasteries could not be touched.