We can profitably begin a sketch of the life-cycle of the godly ministry at Cambridge. In what follows, I have focused on Emmanuel College, where John Preston was Master from 1622 to 1628, not because it was the only college to produce godly ministers but because it was the college which became identified with such ministers more than any other and because it was pre-eminent in the areas under study. I have paid little attention to the traditional areas of university histories, institutional details, social background and the structures of the curriculum, not least because we are ably served by other works. Here, I am principally concerned with extracurricular activities, ways in which students and prospective ministers were drawn into the social world of the godly ministry.

At the foundation of Emmanuel College in 1584, Walter Mildmay made quite clear the purpose he intended. He stressed that,