The experts in the three tongues (Latin, Greek and Hebrew) were the humanists who insisted that a knowledge of the ancient tongues was the indispensable tool for theological studies in furtherance of an evangelically based religion. Trilingual foundations were made notably at Cologne, Louvain and Alcala, while the ideal that inspired them also inspired foundations elsewhere, as at Oxford. François I put out feelers to Erasmus with a view to his making such a foundation in France, but nothing came of the project until the institution of the royal lectureships from 1530 onwards.