The Oxford which he left in 1849 was dominated by Aristotle and Bishop Butler.

He came back to find Butler dethroned, and more modern philosophers established in his place.
Aristotle remained where he was, not the type and symbol of universal knowledge, as Dante conceived him, but the groundwork upon which all later systems had been built.

Plato, without whom there would have been no Aristotle, was more closely and reverently studied than ever, partly no doubt through Jowett, and yet mainly because no philosopher can ever get far away from him.

Jowett himself, the ideal "Head of a House," who had been at Balliol when Froude was at Oriel, died in the second year of Froude's professorship, after seeing many of his pupils famous in the world.
He had lived through the great period of transition in which Oxford passed from a monastery to a microcosm.

The Act of 1854 had opened the University to Dissenters, reserving fellowships and scholarships, all places of honour and emolument, for members of the Established Church.