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Footnotes:

[1] A few others have been used occasionally, such as the Phillipps catalogue (1837), and Ulysse Robert’s Inventaire sommaire.

[2] I have not seen Part 3 of Vol. 2 (Codices 15029-21405), which is missing in the British Museum.

[3] Chronicle of Thomas Eccleston, ‘De Adventu Minorum,’ Mon. Francisc. I, p. 5: ‘A. D. MCCXXIV ... feria tertia post festum nativitatis Beatae Virginis.’ This date has been disputed. Wadding (Annales Minorum, I, 303, 362) places the arrival in 1219. The arguments in favour of this view are, (1) that St. Francis appointed Agnellus minister of England in 1219; (2) the statement of Matthew Paris sub anno 1243, that the friars ‘built their first houses in England scarcely twenty-four years ago’ (Chron. Majora, IV, 279). But the evidence in favour of (1) is not conclusive; the letter of St. Francis to Agnellus (Wadding, I, 303; Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica, pp. 5-6) is undated. The contention however seems to be supported by a passage in Eccleston (Mon. Franc. I, 10), identifying the 32nd year after the settlement of the friars in England with the second year of the ministry of Peter of Tewkesbury, who according to the received chronology became minister in 1250 (more probably 1251). From this one might conjecture that the establishment of the English province was officially dated from 1219. But the fragment in Mon. Franc. II, and another MS. of Eccleston in the Phillipps Library at Thirlestaine House, No. 3119, fol. 71-80 (a MS. unknown to either of the editors of the Monumenta Franciscana), read here (fol. 73) ‘quinto anno administrationis Fratris Petri,’ instead of ‘secundo anno,’ and this is probably the correct version. As to argument (2), Paris probably wrote his account (of 1243) a few years later than 1243, and dated accordingly; again the passage refers to Dominicans as well as Franciscans. The evidence in favour of the later date is much stronger. Besides Eccleston, the best authority, we have the statement of the author of the Lanercost Chronicle, himself a Friar Minor: ‘Quo et anno (1224) post festum natalis Virginis gloriosae applicuerunt fratres Minorum in Angliam’ (p. 30). This may be derived from Eccleston, but on the next page is a statement which is certainly independent of him: ‘Eodem anno (1224) venerunt primo fratres Minores in Angliam, in festo beati Bartholomaei apostoli’ (Aug. 24). Cf. ‘Annals of Worcester,’ sub anno 1224 (Ann. Monast. IV, 416).

[4] If so, Bartholomew’s narrative is inaccurate; according to him the adventure happened to Agnellus and his four companions (among whom was Albert of Pisa) on their way from Canterbury to Oxford. But Bartholomew is not remarkable for accuracy. Liber Conformitatum, fol. 79 (ed. Milan, 1510).

[5] ‘Joculatores et non dei servos.’ Wood’s version of the story differs in several points from that of Bartholomew of Pisa, from whom it is professedly derived. (MS. F 29a, f. 175a, quoted in Dugdale, VI, pt. 3, p. 1524.)

[6] Eccleston, Mon. Franc. I, p. 9.

[7] Ibid. p. 17.

[8] Eccleston, Mon. Franc. I, p. 9.

[9] Ibid. p. 17: ‘In qua intraverunt ordinem multi probi baccalaurei et multi nobiles.’ Cf. ib. p. 61.

[10] Ibid. Denifle (‘Die UniversitÄten des Mittelalters,’ I, 245) puts the arrival of the Franciscans at Oxford in the year 1225, the hiring of their first house in 1226, of their second ‘at the beginning of the thirties,’ on the authority of Eccleston.

[11] Mon. Franc. I, p. 27.

[12] See, e.g., Wadding, Ann. Minorum, I, 10, 302, &c.; Mon. Franc. I, 567 seq., &c.

[13] Lanercost Chron. 130: ‘Tenemur creditoribus in urbe decem marcarum solutionem.’ The whole account of the circumstances is very curious, but too long to quote here. The date is about 1280.

[14] Mon. Franc. I, p. 17: ‘Fuit autem area ipsa brevis et arcta nimis’; p. 34, ‘Usque ad tempus Fratris Alberti domus ipsa diversorio careret.’ Wiclif attributed the great plague in a large measure to the friars herding together in cities; Trialogus, IV, cap. 32 (p. 370).

[15] Mon. Franc. I, 34.

[16] Barth. of Pisa, Liber Conform. f. 79b: cf. Mon. Franc. I, 16, 542. The prelates referred to are Ralph Maidstone and John Reading.

[17] Liberate Roll, 23 Hen. III, m. 6: ‘ccc ulnas panni grisei’ for Minorites; and m. 3: ‘Lij ulnas Russetti ad tunicas faciendas ad opus xiij fratrum Minorum de Rading’, scilicet ulnam de precio xi denariorum ad plus.’ Four ells went to make a habit. The quality was not the best, the ordinary price for russet—i.e. undyed cloth of black wool—was 1s. 4d. an ell; Rogers, ‘Hist. of Prices,’ II, 536-7. At the end of the fourteenth century Friar W. Woodford says that the friars were better clothed in England than elsewhere owing to the abundance of wool in this country; Twyne, MS. XXI, 501.

[18] Mon. Franc. I, 66: cf. ibid. 55.

[19] Or ‘idiots,’ as Brewer translates (Mon. Franc. I, 631) the original ‘omnes fatui nativi,’ Lanerc. Chron. 30. Cf. Mon. Franc. I, 564 (Testament of St. Francis): ‘We were content to be taken as ideotis and foolys of euery man.’

[20] Mon. Franc. I, 28; other convents were less scrupulous; see Liberate Roll, 23 Hen. III, m. 6—an order to buy ‘ccc paria sotularium’ at the Winchester fair for the Friars Minors there.

[21] Lanerc. Chron. 31.

[22] Eccleston, p. 38.

[23] Ibid. p. 52.

[24] Mon. Franc. I, p. 195; the date of the letter is probably about 1250. On the other hand, Adam seems to have accepted ‘small coins’ (quatrinos) by way of alms from a friend; ibid. p. 229.

[25] Liberate Rolls, 22 Hen. III, m. 15; 29 Hen. III, m. 5; 30 Hen. III, m. 17. In making this statement, I have relied on the MS. Calendar of the Patent Rolls for Hen. III (3 vols. folio, containing some 4000 pages), the MS. Cal. of the Close Rolls from the 12th year of Hen. III to the end of his reign (10 vols. folio), both in the Public Record Office; the Liberate Rolls of the same reign, for which no Calendar exists, I have gone through; after Hen. III these latter become less full and interesting.

[26] Close, 15 Hen. III, m. 11.

[27] Ibid. 20 Hen. III, m. 11.

[28] Ibid. 21 Hen. III, m. 1.

[29] See Close Rolls for the following years of Hen. III: 15 (m. 2), 17 (m. 15, and 10), 18 (m. 28, and 18), 19 (pt. 1, m. 8), 20 (m. 6), 22 (m. 16), 26 (m. 4), 30 (m. 17, and 2), 36 (m. 24), 39 (m. 15), 40 (m. 8), 41 (m. 10), 42 (m. 6), 43 (m. 9), 45 (m. 21), 47 (m. 8), 48 (m. 6), 50 (m. 3), 51 (m. 4), 54 (m. 8), 55 (m. 1). Liberate Rolls, 17 (m. 6), 22 (m. 9), 23 (m. 10), 24 (m. 13), 26 (m. 5), 30 (m. 16), 32 (m. 4), 36 (m. 14).

[30] Close, 24 Hen. III, m. 11 (Custodibus vinorum Suhant) and Liberate, 24 Hen. III, m. 12 (Custodibus vinorum R. Oxon).

[31] Close, 32 Hen. III, m. 9; cf. Lyte, p. 43.

[32] Ibid. m. 8.

[33] Liberate, 29 Hen. III, m. 14. Isabella, sister of Henry III, married Frederick II in 1235, and died Dec. 1, 1241.

[34] Mon. Franc. I, p. 19.

[35] Ibid. p. 20.

[36] Barth. of Pisa has changed this story from a dream into a reality and added miraculous incidents: ‘Crux lignea ... fragore stupendo se vertit ad fratres; ... et plures eorum mortui sunt in brevi.’ Liber Conform. f. 80.

[37] ‘Tria sunt necessaria ad salutem tempora, cibus, somnus et jocus.’ Mon. Franc. I, 64.

[38] Ibid. p. 56.

[39] Ibid. p. 58; he added, that, ‘when he was with St. Francis, the saint compelled him to double every day what he had been accustomed to eat.’ Cf. Mrs. Oliphant’s ‘Francis of Assisi,’ p. 85.

[40] Mon. Franc. I, 64-5.

[41] Mon. Franc. I, pp. 64-66.

[42] Bishop Gardiner’s description of a Cambridge Augustinian, quoted by Dixon, ‘Church of England,’ II, p. 253, n.: he ‘was of a merry scoffing wit, friar-like; and as a good fellow in company was beloved of many.’

[43] In 1398, e.g. ‘On Sunday came two Friars Minors to dine with the fellows (of New College), also the farmer of Heyford.’ Boase, Oxford, p. 78.

[44] Mon. Franc. II, 68. St. Francis used to sprinkle sumptuous fare with ashes; Oliphant, p. 86.

[45] See story of the warden who on the day that he preached to the people cracked jokes with a monk after dinner in the presence of a secular; Mon. Franc. I, 53. ‘OxoniÆ’ in the same paragraph should be ‘ExoniÆ’: Serlo was Dean of Exeter, 1225-1231, Le Neve, Fasti.

[46] Mon. Franc. I, p. 55.

[47] Cf. ibid. p. 6, W. of Esseby; and p. 23, Haymo of Faversham; ‘fuit enim ita gratiosus et eloquens, ut etiam adversantibus Ordini gratus et acceptus existeret.’

[48] Ibid. 52; M. Paris, Chron. Majora, IV, p. 257. Cf. ibid. p. 251; Annals of Tewkesbury (Ann. Monast. I, 92).

[49] Liberate Rolls, 31 Hen. III, m. 4, 42 Hen. III, m. 3.

[50] See Part II, W. of Gainsborough, H. of Hertepol.

[51] Grosseteste, EpistolÆ, p. 21.

[52] Mon. Franc. I, p. 15.

[53] Grosseteste, Ep. p. 21, ‘nec moveat aliquem,’ &c.: a striking illustration of the fascination of Eastern heresies at the time.

[54] Ibid. and Mon. Franc. p. 16.

[55] Lanerc. Chron. p. 81.

[56] Ibid. p. 128. His name is not given.

[57] It will of course be remembered that in the early thirteenth century the Chancellor of the University was in fact as in legal theory the delegate of the bishop of the diocese.

[58] Lyte, p. 38.

[59] Grosseteste, Ep. Letter XX.

[60] Mon. Franc. I, p. 99.

[61] Ibid. p. 100-101.

[62] Pat. 28 Hen. III, m. 7 in dorso. Mr. M. Lyte (p. 42, note 3) makes the date of the king’s writ May 10, 1246, of the deed of acknowledgment, May 11, 28 Hen. III (i.e. 1244); and adds to the confusion about the Bacons by reading John instead of Robert.

[63] Close, 3 Edward I, m. 18 in dorso, writ to the Chancellor. Oliver was Prior of the Dominicans about this time, Wood-Clark, II, 337.

[64] fflemeguill.

[65] Mon. Franc. I, 405.

[66] The Wardens of the college and of the convent were liable to be deposed on the petition of the members of their respective houses, and the system of ‘exhibitions’ for scholars must have resembled that in vogue among the friars at the University. But the year of probation, the observance of silence, the ‘scrutinies’ or chapters, were common to all monastic institutions.

[67] Twyne, MS. XXII, 103c; Cap. 32 of Woodford’s Defensorium: ‘It is manifest that one friar minor confessor to a venerable Lady moved her to make that Hall at Oxford which is called the Hall of Balliol.’

[68] Letter of Devorguila to Friar R. de Slikeburne, dated 1284, in College Archives: Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. IV, p. 442.

[69] Ibid. pp. 442, 444, four deeds from 1285 to 1287.

[70] Preserved in the College Archives: printed in Savage’s Balliofergus, p. 15 seq.

[71] The care taken of the poorer students, of their feelings no less than of their purses, is particularly interesting in connexion with the Franciscans.

[72] Cf. the Statutes of 1282, which are to be observed ‘in the time of all proctors whatsoever;’ the Statutes of Sir Philip Somerville (1340) mention ‘duo Magistri extrinseci’ (Statutes of the Oxford Colleges, Vol. I, Balliol, p. x).

[73] History MSS. Com. ut supra.

[74] Ibid. (abstract).

[75] The clause to which objection was made was, that if the Master obtained a benefice of the annual value of £10, ‘ipso facto noverit (ab officio) se amotum.’ Statutes of the Oxford Colleges, Vol. I, Balliol, p. xx.

[76] E.g. in 1257, Bonaventura investigates the causes ‘cur splendor nostri Ordinis quodammodo obscuratur.’ Wadding, IV, 58; cf. M. Paris, Chron. Majora, IV, 279-8; Mon. Franc. I, 361-3, 408, &c.

[77] Mon. Franc. I, 48.

[78] Ibid. 48. Friar Albert of Pisa, who, as Minister of seven provinces and General of the Order, had no lack of experience, ‘died commending the English above all nations in zeal for their Order’ (ibid.). Cf. ibid. p. 68, John of Parma, General, frequently exclaimed when in England: ‘Would that such a province had been set in the midst of the world to be for an example to all the churches!’

[79] Eccleston, p. 9.

[80] An entry in ‘Placita Corone 25 Hen. III, Oxon. M. ⁵/1} 2, m. 1 b,’ may lead to the identification of the site; it is an agreement between Robert, Master of the Hospital of St. John, outside the East Gate, and Roger Noyf, ‘de escambio unius messuagii cum pertinenciis in Oxonia ... videlicet quod idem Rogerus dedit et concessit predicto magistro in escambium predicti messuagii magnam domum ipsius Rogeri lapideam, que est ante ecclesiam Sce Abbe cum pertinenciis. Et quod situm est inter terram Roberti le Mercer et terram quam tenet de Abbate de Abendon.’

[81] Wood-Clark, II, 358.

[82] Pat. 29 Hen. III, m. 9; cf. Pat. 32 Hen. III, m. 10; both printed in Mon. Franc. I, 616-7, and in Appx. A.

[83] Mayor in 1227, 1228, 1229, Wood-Peshall, ‘City of Oxford,’ p. 355.

[84] ‘Ex elemosyna collecta.’

[85] The original of this grant is in the Oxford City Archives, marked ‘17.’ See Appx. A. 1.

[86] Close Roll, 20 Henry III, m. 9: printed in Appx. A. 2.

[87] Parker, ‘Early History of Oxford,’ p. 342: extracts from Domesday Book.

[88] Eccleston, Mon. Franc. I, p. 34: ‘Tantus erat zelator paupertatis, ut vix permitteret vel ampliari areas vel domos aedificari, nisi secundum quod exegit inevitabilis necessitas.’

[89] Mon. Franc. I, p. 55.

[90] Ibid. pp. 34-5.

[91] ‘Sufficienter ampliatus,’ Eccleston, p. 35: cf. Wykes, Ann. Monast. IV, 93 (1245): ‘The Friars Minors at Oxford, hitherto confined to narrow limits, began to widen their boundaries and build new houses.’

[92] Pat. 29 Hen. III, m. 9; Appx. A. 3.

[93] i.e. Littlegate, not South Gate (as Boase, p. 68), which was in St. Aldate’s parish.

[94] Pat. 32 Hen. III, m. 10; Appx. A. 8; Mon. Franc. I, p. 617. It was this grant of 1248 that remained in force: see confirmation of it in Pat. 18 Edw. III, m. 19.

[95] It is uncertain who this Guydo was: a ‘Guido filius Roberti’ was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1249: Liberate, 33 Hen. III, m. 9; and two sons of Guydo had a lawsuit in 13 Ed. I: Placita Corone, Oxon. M. ⁵/2} 1, m. 5 d, &c.

[96] Brian Tywne, MS. XXII, 131: ‘Ex Rotulo general, Inquis. com. et villae Oxon. per hundred capta A^o 6^o et 7^o Edⁱ Iⁱ per sacramentum inhabitantium.’ Wood (MS. F 29 a, f. 176 a) copies this from B. Twyne: Peshall and Stevens, copying carelessly from Wood, speak of it as an ‘Inquisition taken in the year 1221.’

[97] Wood (MS. F 29 a, f. 176) after quoting this Inquisition, goes on: ‘besides w^ch they had another large piece of ground of y^e said Agnes since knowne (as now tis) as part of paradise garden;’ and he adds in the margin: ‘another piece of land they had w^ch was Tho. Fullonis or Alice Foliot ut in Carta 66 ex lib. S. frid. v. AV. p. 19,’ i.e. Wood MS. C 2, p. 19 in Bodleian—a charter from Stephen to St. Frideswide’s, confirming the property of the Priory in and outside Oxford: among the tenants is Tho. Fullo, who pays 5s. for land in St. Ebbe’s; the charter is No. 66 in the Corpus Copy of St. Frideswide’s Chartulary, and dates in its present form from c. 33 Hen. III. (I am indebted to Rev. S. R. Wigram for this reference.) This tenement of Tho. Fullo was very likely near St. Budhoc’s, where William and Rad. Fullo had land. See B. Twyne, MS. III, 8-9, Charter of R. de Hokenorton, in ‘libro Osneyensi;’ and XXII, 286.

[98] Le Neve, Fasti.

[99] Feet of Fines, Oxon., 29 Hen. III, m. 40-44, and 46. For first grant see Appx. A. 6.

[100] Feet of Fines, Oxon., 29 Hen. III, m. 46, ‘a die S. Johannis Baptiste In tres septimanas.’

[101] This fee of the Abbat of Bec belonged to Steventon Priory, Berks, a cell of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. Dugdale, Vol. VI, p. 1044.

[102] Pat. 29 Hen. III, m. 6 (Appx. A. 5). Whether the island lay to the south or west of the Friary is not certain. Wood says: ‘This piece of ground I suppose was part of (or at least near adjoyning to) paradise garden though wee now see it all one intire piece; for in ancient time it was divided in severall Islands, as may be seene by the arches under a ruinous stone wall to this day remaining in the same garden.’ MS. F 29 a, f. 176 (Wood-Clark, II, 396). Cf. Clark’s edition of Wood’s ‘City of Oxford,’ Vol. I, p. 578, note 37. ‘Paradise Garden formerly belonging to the Grey Fryers. There was a rivulet running sometimes through and made it two. The arch is in the wall to this day that parts Paradise and the Grey Friers. It came from the east part of Paradice and soe ran downe as far as the brewhouse which brewhous was formerly part of Paradise.’ Elsewhere he says: ‘Which isle was situated on the south side of their habitation (the rivulet called Trill Mill running between) and on the west side of the habitation of the Black Fryers; and is now belonging to Sir William Morton, Kt.’ &c.; ibid, Vol. II, p. 361; cf. p. 396, n. 2, where he identifies this piece of land (i.e. the ground between the present New St., Norfolk St., and Friars St.) with the friars’ grove as distinguished from the island.

[103] Liberate Roll, 29 Hen. III, m. 9 (Appx. A. 4).

[104] Or ‘present at’—interfuit.

[105] Pat. 31 Hen. III, m. 8 (see Appx. A. 7).

[106] Ingram in his Memorials of Oxford, published 1837 (Vol. III, under St. Ebbe’s), says, speaking of Pat. 29 Hen. III, m. 9: ‘A great part of the wall built according to this agreement is still in existence, or at least an old wall on the same site.’ Some of it, on the west side of Littlegate Street, south of Charles Street, is still to be seen. Cf. Wood, MS. 29 a, fol. 179: ‘On the east side of it (i.e. Minorites’ property) ... was the way leading from Watergate to Preachers Bridge.’

[107] Pat. 46 Hen. III, m. 11 (May 7).

[108] Pat. 49 Hen. III, m. 24 (Feb. 5).

[109] Ibid. (Feb. 8), Appx. A. 9.

[110] B. Twyne (MS. III, 13) seems to have been led astray by the word ‘benedictum’ into thinking there was a Benedictine church here.

[111] Placita Coronae, Oxon. 13 Edw. I, M. ⁵/2} 3, m. 55.

[112] Chronicles of Edw. I & II, Vol. I, p. 83 (R.S.).

[113] Wadding, V, p. 575, No. xxii Ex parte dilectorum. The date is VI Kal. Sept. An. 2.

[114] Wadding, Ann. Min. Vol. VI, p. 463.

[115] Wadding calls him ‘Earl of Kichiemunda.’

[116] Pat. 3 Edw. II, m. 9 (Appx. A. 11).

[117] Pat. Edw. II, m. 14 (Appx. A. 10).

[118] No donor’s name occurs.

[119] This is probably the land which Wood refers to as having belonged to Thomas Fullo. The charter of Rob. Hokenorton to Osney mentions ‘land which Will. Fullo held of Reginald de Sub Muro, juxta ecclesiam S. Budoci, Oxon., quae tendit a Regia Semita usque ad aquam Thamesis in profundum, et usque ad terram Radulfi Fullonis in latum, ex australi parte predicte Ecclesie.’ B. Twyne, MS. III, 8-9.

[120] Pat. 12 Edw. II, m. 25 (6 March, 1319); Appx. A. 12.

[121] Inquis. a. q. D. 13 Edw. II, No. 31.

[122] Inquis. Oxon. Capta 6 and 7 Edw. I; Brian Twyne, III, 8-9. Walter Aurifaber had a daughter named Agatha; ib. XXIV, 253.

[123] Inquis. a. q. D. 12 Edw. II, No. 47 (5 March, 18 May), Appx. A. 13; Pat. 13 Edw. II, m. 44 (8 July).

[124] Pat. 14 Edw. II, m. 10 (12 May).

[125] Pat. 11 Edw. III, pt. 2, m. 6 (19 Aug.), Appx. A. 14.

[126] Rob. le Mercer and others are commanded to help the Mayor, Peter son of Thorald, in building the city wall (Claus. 18 Hen. III, m. 23). Robert Owen and Ric. the Miller witness William of Wileford’s deed, see App. The names are significant—the Mercer, the Miller, the Barber, the Tailor.

[127] Wood-Peshall, Ancient and Present State, &c., p. 355.

[128] One of this name was Commissioner of gaol delivery for Dorchester, Wycombe, Aylesbury, &c.: Pat. 54 Hen. III, m. 17 d, 12 d; and 55 Hen. III, m. 28 d.

[129] Eccleston, Mon. Franc. I, p. 9.

[130] Close Roll, 16 Hen. III, m. 9 (June 17).

[131] Eccleston, p. 20.

[132] Ibid.; and Barth. of Pisa, Lib. Conform. fol. 80.

[133] Eccleston, p. 54. Barth. of Pisa says, ‘in capsa lignea,’ fol. 80.

[134] Eccleston, ibid.

[135] Eccleston, p. 37, ‘Scholam satis honestam.’

[136] Pat. 32 Hen. III, m. 10.

[137] Mon. Franc. I, 25.

[138] Ibid. 362: ‘quasi carni et sanguini, quasi luto et lateribus, quasi lignis et lapidibus, quasi quibuscunque qualicunque compendiolo mundanis questibus totum dandum esset.’

[139] Wood, MS. F 29 a, f. 179 a.

[140] Claus. 24 Hen. III, m. 17 (Feb. 5); Liberate, 24 Hen. III, m. 19 (Feb. 7).

[141] Liberate, 29 Hen. III, m. 5.

[142] Claus. 56 Hen. III, m. 7.

[143] Liberate, 30 Hen. III, m. 16: ‘Mandatum est Vicecomiti Oxonie quod de amerciamentis Itineris Roberti Passelewe et sociorum suorum Justiciariorum qui ultimo Itinerauerunt ad placita foreste in Comitatu suo faciat habere fratribus minoribus Oxonie iij Marcas et fratribus predicatoribus eiusdem ville iij ad fabricam ecclesie sue de dono Regis.’

[144] Pat. 32 Hen. III, m. 10.

[145] Early Hist. of Oxford, p. 298: his map of Oxford gives a street outside the wall.

[146] I am indebted to Mr. Parker for this information and suggestion.

[147] Cromwell Corresp., 2nd series, Vol. XXIII, fol. 709 b (Record Office).

[148] Cf. Walcott’s ‘Church and Conventual Arrangement,’ on Friars’ Churches, &c.

[149] Annals, 662.

[150] Stevens, ‘Hist. of Abbeys,’ &c., I, 137: ‘This account appears to me very confuse and unintelligible.’

[151] Itinerarium, p. 296.

[152] Ibid. p. 83, ‘Memorandum quod 24 steppys sive gressus mei faciunt 12 virgas ... Item 50 virgae faciunt 85 gradus sive steppys mei:’ and p. 281, ‘quaelibet virga tres pedes,’ &c.

[153] Walcott, as above.

[154] P.C.C. Regist. Hogen, qu. 26 (in Somerset House).

[155] Mon. Franc. I, 508, &c.

[156] Wood-Clark, II, 407. Adam Marsh was personally known to the Earl of Cornwall; in a letter to the Queen of England he mentions having been with him; Mon. Franc. I, 291: cf. ibid. 105-6, 400. A letter from Adam to Senchia, Richard’s wife, is extant, ibid. p. 292. The following character of Richard is curious as being drawn probably by a Franciscan: ‘Hic erga omnes mulieres cujuscunque professionis luxuriosissimus, thesaurorum collector cupidissimus et avidissimus, pauperum oppressor insolentissimus.’ MS. Cott. Cleop. B xiii, f. 148: cf. Hardy, Descript. Catal. &c.

[157] He died 1270, according to Walsyngham, Ypodigma Neustriae, p. 165 (R.S.); 1272 according to Trivet, Ann. 279. The latter is probably correct: see Foedera, I, 489.

[158] J. Rouse, p. 199 (ed. Hearne). Rouse studied at Oxford, and died 1491.

[159] Chron. of Osney, 17 Oct. 1277: R.S. ed. p. 274.

[160] Wood, MS. F 29 a, fol. 179 b.

[161] Ibid.

[162] Regist. Arundel, I, fol. 155. Sir H. Nicolas reads Exon. instead of Oxon: p. 135.

[163] Ibid. fol. 155 b. The Golafre property at Fyfield now belongs to St. John’s College; the President informs me that the College has no documents relating to the Golafre family.

[164] Early Lincoln Wills (A. Gibbons, 1888), p. 186.

[165] B. Twyne, MS. XXIII, 478. He altered this part of his will in a codicil, and was buried in St. Ebbe’s.

[166] Mun. Acad.: Anstey, p. 543.

[167] ‘Coram ymagine beate Marie Virginis de pyte.’ Oxford City Records, Old White Book, f. 90 a.

[168] P.C.C. Porch, fol. 9.

[169] Barth. of Pisa, fol. 80.

[170] Eccleston, 54.

[171] J. Rouse, Hist. p. 29: ‘et modo in ordinis sui fratres Minores Oxon sepultum.’

[172] Oxford Univ. Reg. A a a, fol. 213.

[173] First mention is in 1370: Anstey’s Mun. Acad. 232-3.

[174] At Reading, the chapter-house and dormitory seem to have formed one building. Liberate Rolls, 23 Hen. III, m. 6, and 24 Hen. III, m. 1.

[175] Agas map of 1578, engraved by Neale 1728; Hollar’s map, 1643.

[176] The warden at Reading occupied one of ‘thre prety lodginges’ at the Grey Friars; Cromwell Corresp., Vol. XXIII, f. 742.

[177] Cf. Inventory of the Grey Friars, Ipswich; Chapter House Bks. A ³/11; ‘owthe of the Vicewarden’s Chamber.’

[178] P. 130.

[179] ‘Two short treatises against the Begging Friars’ (Oxf. 1608), p. 30; cf. Roy’s Satire on Card. Wolsey, Harl. Misc., Vol. IX, p. 42, &c.

[180] See Pecock’s Repressor, p. 543, on the objection that ‘religiose monasteries (nameliche of the begging religiouns) han withinne her gatis and cloocis grete large wijde hi?e and stateli mansiouns for lordis and ladies ther yn to reste, abide, and dwelle;’ and p. 548-50. Edward III stayed at the Grey Friars, York, in 1335 (Rymer, Foed., Vol. II, pt. ii, p. 909). In the Record Office (Excheq. Q. R. Wardrobe ²¹/12) is a document containing details as to feasts in the Dominican Convent at Oxford in connexion with the burial of Piers Gaveston; the feasts were continued for four weeks. The Earl of Hereford, who spent Christmas at Grey Friars, Exeter, in 1288, found his lodgings detestable and the stench insupportable: Oliver, Monast. Exon. p. 331.

[181] ‘Ex magnatibus unus rem magnam ausus est et perfecit, ut suis sumptibus a multis milliaribus Anglicanis ductis sub Isidis et Chervelli fluminum divortiis plumbeis canalibus, corrivaretur ad omnes Monasterii officinas aqua salubris in magna abundantia.’ Ann. Minorum, I, 364, A. D. 1221. Wadding gives no authority for the statement.

[182] Placita Coronae, 31 Hen. III, Oxon. M ⁵/1} 3, f. 40: ‘Jurati presentant quod fratres predicatores et fratres minores ceperunt in pluribus locis super aquam Thamesis et ibi fecerunt fossata et muros et alia.’

[183] B. Twyne, MS. XXIII, 151 (11 Hen. VII).

[184] Oxford City Records, 191.

[185] Wood, MS. F 29 a, fol. 179 a.

[186] Eccleston, p. 35.

[187] Wadding, I, 346; cf. Mon. Franc. I, xxx-xxxii.

[188] Cf. Bacon’s works, De retardatione senectutis, Antidotarius, &c.; and Opera Inedita, 374—‘regimen sanitatis.’ Grostete’s ‘interest in physical science seems to date from his connexion with the friars.’ M. Lyte, p. 30.

[189] Mon. Franc. I, 24.

[190] MS. F 29 a, f. 176.

[191] Liber Conf. fol. 79 b.

[192] Mon. Franc. I, 37.

[193] Grostete, Epistolae, p. 17 sqq., letter to Agnellus and the convent at Oxford, written between 1225 and 1231.

[194] Lyte, ‘Hist. of Univ. of Oxford,’ p. 29.

[195] Mon. Franc. I, 37: ‘Ipso igitur ab cathedra magisteriali in cathedram pontificalem ... translato.’

[196] P. 45: ‘Vir iste primus cathedram scholarum fratrum minorum rexit Oxoniae, unde et assumptus fuit ad cathedram praelatiae.’

[197] Mon. Franc. ibid.

[198] Ibid. p. 38. The dates are from Le Neve.

[199] Ibid.

[200] Grostete, Ep. p. 149. In Letter xvii ‘Magister Thomas Walensis’ is mentioned as being in England; the date of the letter must be between 1235 and 1239 (when W. de Raleger became Bishop of Norwich); probably 1238, after Thomas had returned from Paris, before he became Archdeacon.

[201] Ibid. p. 151.

[202] Opera Ined. p. 325.

[203] Grostete, Ep. ut supra. Both received high offices in Lincoln diocese, Roger as dean resisted the bishop’s claims. Paris, Chron. Majora, III, 528; IV, 391.

[204] Chron. Majora, IV, 424, ‘vir moribus et scientia eleganter insignitus;’ V, 644, ‘vir omni laude dignissimus.’ We may perhaps see a result of his contact with the Franciscans in his exhortation to the clergy of his diocese ‘to preach often in the vulgar tongue, simply and without discussion, to the people, using practical not subtle arguments.’ B. Twyne, MS. XXI, 280 (Episc. Coventr. ‘in suis institutis MS.’).

[205] Opera Inedita, pp. 88, 428.

[206] Chron. Majora, IV, 245.

[207] Ibid. 647.

[208] Lanerc. Chron. p. 130; cf. ibid. pp. 45, 58.

[209] Mon. Franc. I, 348. The statute was to be subscribed by ‘the Chancellor and all the regent masters in Holy Scripture ... and Friar Adam called de Marisco.’

[210] Mon. Franc. I, 335.

[211] For Grostete, see Lanerc. Chron. p. 45: ‘The friars then going to Robert as to a pedagogue relate what has happened and beg him to say what he thought,’ &c. The extraordinary activity of Adam Marsh in this and in many other spheres has been too often and too well described to detain us here: see Brewer’s pref. to Mon. Franc. I, Pauli, ‘Pictures of Old England,’ pp. 67, 68 (extract quoted by Lyte, p. 51), and his ‘Grosteste and Adam Marsh.’ Cf. Bacon, Op. Ined. p. 186. Adam’s description of the ideal pastor might be applied to himself. Mon. Franc. I, 445.

[212] For Adam’s influence with Hen. III, see Lanerc. Chron. p. 24; Mon. Franc. I, 142 and 268 (on behalf of Earl Simon). He incurred the royal displeasure ‘propter verba vitae;’ ibid. 275. Cf. ibid. 335: one of the grounds on which he declines to assist the Archbishop in his visitation is ‘districtum domini regis mandatum, quo interdictum fuit domino archiepiscopo ne me, velut proditorium inimicum, ad comitivam suam evocaret.’ Cf. p. 387, he is summoned to Reading and London ‘on matters of the highest importance, touching the sceptre and the kingdom.’

[213] Ibid. p. 110. Compare Nicholas de Lyra’s commentary on Psalm xliv. quoted by J. Rouse, ‘Hist. Regum Anglie,’ ed. Hearne, p. 38.

[214] Mon. Franc. I, 267.

[215] Stubbs, Const. Hist. II, p. 313, n. 1: ‘The sentiments not of the people but of the Universities, and incidentally of the Franciscans also, are exemplified in the long Latin poem printed in Wright’s Political Songs, pp. 72-121.... It was clearly a manifesto, amongst themselves, of the men whose preaching guided the people.’

[216] See note 6, p. 32. The poem expresses the constitutional view of monarchy with extraordinary clearness. Parts of it are translated by Mr. York Powell, ‘Hist. of England,’ pp. 148-9, and 152.

[217] Polit. Songs (Camden Soc.), p. 124.

[218] ‘Miracula Symonis de Montfort’ (printed at the end of Rishanger’s Chronicle, Camden Soc. 1840), pp. 87, 95, 96. Cf. Dictum de Kenilworth, cap. 8 (Stubbs’ Select Charters, pp. 420-421).

[219] Cf. Bacon, Op. Ined. 329. It was apparently in this relationship that ‘Juvenis Johannes’ stood to Roger Bacon.

[220] Mon. Franc. I, 314-316.

[221] Adam’s position was exceptional, and his socius no doubt exceptionally hard-worked.

[222] Mon. Franc. I, 354.

[223] See the list of 67 lectores in Part II. The list is taken from the Cottonian MS. of Eccleston. In the same MS. (Cott. Nero A IX, fol. 78) is a similar list of readers at Cambridge under the heading, ‘Fratrum Minorum Magistri Cantabrigie.’

[224] Mon. Franc. I, 335; cf. Harl. MS. 431, fol. 100 b, election of J. David to be lector at Hereford: Wadding, X, p. 156 (A. D. 1430); XIII, 73. At first the lecturers seem to have been appointed by the Provincial Minister (Mon. Franc. I, 37, 354), or, when a friar was sent from one province to another, by the General (Ibid. 39, R. de Colebruge). In the 14th and 15th centuries, the reader had to be confirmed by the General, and might be appointed by him: MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, f. 77 b; and Wadding, X, 156. Anal. Franc. II, 240 (A. D. 1411).

[225] Mon. Franc. I, 357.

[226] Woodford in his reply to Armachamus (cap. 8) says: ‘Pope Benedict ordained statutes for the order of friars Minors, of great and mature counsel, which are called among the Minorities statuta papalia; in these it is decreed concerning which parts of the Order ought to lecture on the Sentences at Paris, which parts at Oxford and Cambridge, how they ought to be elected in general and provincial chapters, and how consequently they ought to ascend to the doctor’s degree by papal ordinance or election of the Order.’ The constitutions of Benedict XII, de studiis (A. D. 1336), were printed in Chronologia historico-legalis seraphici Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, Neapoli 1650, tom. I, p. 46 (referred to in Anal. Franc. II, 165); I have not seen this book. They are omitted by Baronius et Raynaldus, Annales Eccles. Vol. XXV, p. 92 seq. They are contained in Bodl. MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, ff. 73 seq., but no mention of Oxford occurs here. The following regulations are given for Cambridge (fol. 77 b): ‘Simili quoque modo, aliorum (qui) ordinabuntur ad legendum sentencias in studio Cantabrigie, duo assumantur duobus annis de provincia Anglie per ipsius provincie provinciale Capitulum eligendi, et tercius anno tercio de aliis partibus ordinis per generale capitulum tam de cismontanis quam de ultramontanis eligendus.’

[227] MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, fol. 78: ‘Nullus quoque frater dicti ordinis ad legendum in prenominatis studiis (i.e. recognised Universities) sententias assumatur, nisi prius legerit 4^or libros sententiarum cum scriptis approbatorum doctorum in aliis studiis qui (sic) in eodem ordine dicuntur generalia vel conventibus infrascriptis, vidz ... Londoniensi, Eboricensi, ... Novi castri, Stramforicensi (?) ... Exoniensi,’ &c. Nineteen convents in all are mentioned; only those which are, or may be, in England are here quoted. I have found no evidence to show whether this rule was or was not carried out.

[228] Anal. Franc. II, 241.

[229] Lyte, p. 107.

[230] Mon. Franc. I, 232.

[231] See dates of the Oxford lectors in Part II; Harl. MS. 431, fol. 100 b, &c. The period of necessary Regency was at first one year, afterwards two.

[232] That the Chapters of the Minorites were actually held yearly in England may be seen from Pat. Roll, 1 Hen. IV, part 5, m. 7: ‘ac pro capitulo suo provinciali quod in Anglia singulis annis celebratur.’

[233] e.g. Adam Marsh, T. Docking, &c.

[234] Mon. Franc. I, 40.

[235] MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, f. 11 b; Lanerc. Chron. p. 130: ‘Non,’ inquit (janitor), ‘audeo tam mane ostiolum illius (i.e. magistri scholarum) pulsare, cum ipse studio intendat quid legere debeat.’

[236] MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, fol. 80.

[237] Mun. Acad. 428; Masters of Arts were compelled to exact their fees. Gratuitous lecturing by Franciscans is always spoken of as exceptional. Thus Nic. de Burgo urges his having lectured ‘pene gratis’ as a reason why he should be excused the payment of his composition (Reg. H. 7, f. 117). A grace to Walter Goodfylde, S.T.B., is conceded ‘condicionata ... quod legat unum librum sentenciarum publice et gratis.’

[238] Epistolae, pp. 346-7. The bibliographies in Part II will give some idea of the subjects chiefly taught by the early Franciscans: see especially John Wallensis (ethics and practical theology), Thomas Docking (biblical exegesis), Roger Bacon (physics, &c.).

[239] Op. Ined. 329. Cf. pp. 81 and 82: ‘tota sapientia concluditur in sacra scriptura ... sed ejus explicatio est jus canonicum cum philosophia;’ and this was the system followed by Grosteste and Adam. In the Opus Minus (p. 357), Bacon gives a curious example (after Augustine) of what he understands by ‘explaining the Scriptures by natural science.’ Cf. ‘Les contes moralisÉs de Nicole Bozon, FrÈre Mineur,’ by Miss L. T. Smith and Paul Meyer.

[240] Mon. Franc. I, 38.

[241] Cf. Wadding, IV, 14-15, on the schools of the two Orders at Paris. Tywne, MS. III, 300; Dominicans complain that the seculars ‘prevent scholars from going to the schools of the friars,’ &c. (1312).

[242] Cf. Lyte, p. 108; a Dominican Regent goes to the school and finds it occupied by other disputants (1312).

[243] Acta Fratrum Praedicatorum, Collectanea, II, p. 217; Archiv fÜr Litt. u. K. Gesch. I, p. 189. Constitutions of the Dominicans in 1228: ‘in libris gentilium et philosophorum non studeant,’ &c. Bacon, Op. Ined. p. 426; Denifle, ‘Die UniversitÄten,’ &c. I, 701, 719-720.

[244] Mun. Acad. p. 25: ‘Statuit Universitas Oxoniensis, et si statutum fuerit, iterato consensu corroborat,’ &c.

[245] Wood gives 1251 as the date. But both the statute (Mun. Acad. 25) and the letters of Adam Marsh (Mon. Franc. I, 337—reference to controversy about the Southwark Hospital, M. Paris, An. 1252) are clear and at one on the point.

[246] Mon. Francisc. I, 338, 346 sqq.

[247] Mun. Acad. p. 25—the statute itself.

[248] The statute as it exists is not signed.

[249] The official account of the proceedings in the suit between the Friars Preachers and the University has recently been edited by Mr. Rashdall, Collect. Vol. II, Oxf. Hist. Soc.

[250] Collectanea, Vol. II, p. 264 seq.

[251] Ibid. p. 271.

[252] John XXII issued several bulls in their favour; Anno 2, VII Kal. Nov., XVII Kal. Nov., Kal. Nov.; Anno 4, IV Id. Aug. I have not seen this last.

[253] Collect. II, 272.

[254] Mun. Acad. 391. This explanation or compromise was not suggested in any of the three bulls of John XXII, which I have seen. The Pope did not advance matters much: on this point he decreed, ‘quod fratres predicatores et alii religiosi predicti ejusdem loci Oxoniensis, dummodo alias ydonei fuerint, ad idem Magisterium in facultate predicta (sc. theologica), etiam si antea in artibus Magistri non fuerint, non petita, eo pretextu quod Magistri non fuissent in artibus, ab ipsis Cancellario et Magistris vel aliis, ad quos id pro tempore inibi pertinet, licentia per viam gratiae, sed per modum merae justitiae, libere assumantur.’ Bull of John XXII, VIII Kal. Nov. A^o 2, transcribed by Mr. Bliss from Regesta, Vol. 67.

[255] Close Rolls, 11 Ric. II, m. 15; 12 Ric. II, m. 45.

[256] Wilkins, Concilia, III, 400.

[257] Ibid. 574-5. The same form of licensing was used for all faculties, and there was no mention of regency in Arts in the licence for the faculty of theology, strictly speaking: Ibid. 382-3. It was however contained among the conditions which the licentiate swore he had fulfilled or been dispensed from: Ibid. 391-2, 394.

[258] Ibid. 575.

[259] In 1459 John Alien, B.D. of Cambridge, supplicated for incorporation at Oxford: one of the conditions imposed was, ‘quod solvat xl^s ad fabricacionem scolarum.’ This condition was withdrawn the same day. Regist. Aa, f. 119.

[260] Opera Inedita, pp. lv and 399.

[261] Twyne, MS. XXII, f. 103 c (Defensorium, cap. 62).

[262] Mun. Acad. 206.

[263] Ibid. 207-8.

[264] The following passage is taken with some alterations from Richard de Bury’s Philobiblon, p. 51 (edited by E. C. Thomas).

[265] I do not know to which Order these two belonged.

[266] ‘Two Short Treatises,’ &c., p. 30.

[267] Wadding, V, 300; statutes made at the General Chapter at Paris, 1292.

[268] Ibid. II, 382.

[269] Cf. Woodford, Defensorium, cap. 8. Friars are sent to the University by papal ordinance or election by the Order.

[270] Such as existed e.g. among the English Benedictines, one monk out of every twenty being sent to the University. Cf. the practice among the Dominicans, at Paris: ‘Tres fratres tantum mittantur ad studium Parisius (sic) de provincia’ (Constitutions, c. 1235, in Archiv f. L. u K. Gesch. I, 189), and at Oxford, whither two students were sent from each province; Fletcher, The Black Friars of Oxford, p. 6.

[271] As the estimates of the numbers of friars and monks vary considerably, it may be worth while to give the evidence (which is entirely indirect) on which this calculation is based. In 1255, there were, according to Eccleston, 49 Franciscan houses in England and 1242 friars, giving an average of rather more than 25 to each convent (Mon. Franc. I, 10). At London, according to the Regist. Fratrum Min. London., there were about 100 friars, on the average, in the fourteenth century (Ibid. p. 512). The public records give more trustworthy statistics. It was often customary for the kings on their progresses to give pittances of 4d. each to the friars of the places through which they passed. I have found no such grant to the Oxford Minorites: but the statement in the text may be compared with the following instances.

At London in 1243, there were 80 Minorites (Liberate, 28 Hen. III, m. 18: cf. also Q. R. Wardrobe, ⁶/3 and ⁸/1); August, 1314, 64 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁴/10); October, 1314, 72 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁴/10); 1315, 72 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁴/10); 1325, 72 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁵/1). At Norwich in 1326, 47 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁵/1). At Lynn in 1326, 38 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁵/1). At Gloucester in 1326, 40 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁵/1). At Cambridge in 1326, 70 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁵/1).

It is not often possible to compare the numbers in the same houses at different dates. In the northern convents, before the Black Death, there was a large decrease: thus at Newcastle in 1299, provision was made for 68 Minorites (Q. R. Wardrobe, ⁸/55 f. 4); about 45 years later, for 32 only (Chapter-house Books, A ⁵/10, 149); but this may be explained by reference to the special circumstances of the North. Elsewhere we find an increase.

At Winchester, there were 23 Minorites in 1243 (Liberate, 27 Hen. III, m. 2); 43 in 1315 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ²⁴/10). At Reading, there were 13 in 1239 (Liberate, 23 Hen. III, m. 3); 26 in 1326 (Q. R. Wardrobe, ¹⁵/1).

From these figures, and from the Bull of Clement V in 1309 (granting property of the Friars of the Sack to the Grey Friars), we may infer that the numbers in the Oxford convent increased rather than diminished up to A. D. 1349.

[272] Mun. Acad. 388: ‘quidam in eorum primo adventu in villam Oxoniae ... ad opponendum in sacra theologia se offerunt inopinate.’ Ibid. 390: ‘nisi prius dictas liberales artes per octo annos integros in Universitate vel alibi rite audierit,’ &c. Friars sometimes however spent the whole time at the University; see Regist. G. 6, fol. 55 a (R. Burton); H. 7, fol. 124 (J. Thornall).

[273] Mun. Acad. 389; Lyte, 223.

[274] Mun. Acad. 389. One of these years at least must be spent at Oxford; ib. 388: sometimes six or even twelve years’ residence in a University was insisted on; Regist. G. 6, f. 61 b (Banester); H. 7, f. 73 (Thornall).

[275] Ibid. 204, 388: ‘a doctore proprio ejusdem ordinis et Regente.’

[276] Mun. Acad. 204, 388.

[277] Ibid. 389.

[278] Cf. Univ. Reg. Vol. II, Part I, p. 22, disputations ‘in Parvisis’ (for B.A.).

[279] Mun. Acad. 206.

[280] The usual form of application for B.D. is: ‘Supplicat frater Joannes Brown ordinis minorum et scolaris in sacra theologia quatenus studium 12 annorum in logicis philosophicis et theologicis sufficiat ut admittatur ad opponendum in novis scolis qua habita una cum responsione possit admitti ad lecturam libri sententiarum.’ Reg. G. 6, f. 107.

[281] Regist. G. 6, f. 254 b: cf. ibid. f. 187, similar condition in the grace to Friar W. Walle, 1513.

[282] Reg. A a, f. 101 b.

[283] Ibid. 87 b.

[284] Reg. G. 6, f. 127 b; ibid. 160 a. John de Castro of Bologna became B.D. four days after his admission to opposition (Boase, Register, p. 93).

[285] Reg. A a, f. 74 b: ‘oppositio in singulis scolis’ (J. Sunday, 1453).

[286] Reg. G. 6, and H. 7, passim.

[287] Mun. Acad. 389.

[288] Ibid.: this ceremony was called ‘deponing.’

[289] Ibid. 395.

[290] This seems to be the general sense of the words: ‘non replicet pluries quam semel in termino, ultra introitus librorum, et cessationes eorumdem; introitus enim et cessationes librorum, ac recitatio locorum ad materiam propriam pertinens, ... pro replicationibus minime computantur;’ Ibid. 395. For these technical terms, cf. Twyne, MS. II, f. 147 b.

[291] Collectanea, II, 225, 270; Mun. Acad. 392.

[292] Mun. Acad. 395: this is the sermon which is often alluded to in the Supplications, &c. of the fifteenth century as ‘sermo ad quem tenetur ex novo statuto.’

[293] Collectanea, II, 270. The registers make no mention of this sermon; it seems to have been superseded by sermons at St. Paul’s, St. Frideswide’s, St. Mary’s, &c. See Reg. G. 6, f. 185; H. 7, f. 51 b, 110, &c.

[294] Mun. Acad. 391, 396. From the latter passage (and from statute of 1253, ibid. p. 25) it would appear that lectures on the Bible were a substitute for lectures on the Sentences: ‘et aliquem librum de canone bibliae vel sententiarum Oxoniae in scholis theologiae publice legant.’ This however does not seem to have been the case in reality: see supplicat of Friar John Sunday, Feb. 5, 1453/4, in Appendix: cf. Reg. A a, f. 54 (J. Florence), 122 (Ednam), f. 114, &c.

[295] Mun. Acad. 392, 394: ‘biblice seu cursorie.’ For the explanation of the term ‘cursory lectures,’ see Clark’s Univ. Reg., Vol. II, Part I, p. 76.

[296] Mun. Acad. 392, 394. I do not understand ‘concursivae’; cf. note 6 on p. 81.

[297] Clark, Register of the Univ., Vol. II, Pt. II, pp. 109-110.

[298] Reg. A a, f. 79 b (printed in Appendix).

[299] Reg. G. 6, f. 47 b.

[300] Three years was theoretically the minimum; Mun. Acad. 391: the extension of the period to four years must be of later date; Clark, Reg. Vol. II, Pt. II, p. 139. An instance of the later custom is found in 1507; Reg. G. 6, fol. 22 b.

[301] Reg. G. 6, fol. 168 b, 187 b.

[302] Ibid. fol. 160, 187 b.

[303] Ibid. fol. 22 b.

[304] Registers, passim: cf. Clark, Register, Vol. II, Pt. I, 142 seq., for the later customs.

[305] Mun. Acad. 379, 396.

[306] Ibid. 374, 377, 380, 450.

[307] Ibid. 432, 433. The phrase ‘tenere vesperias’ (cf. ibid. 429) perhaps refers to the Master who presided, ‘celebrare vesperias,’ to the incepting Bachelor. Vesperies might be held in any faculty on any day which was a dies legibilis among the artists; Mun. Acad. 433. Anstey (Ibid.) and Lyte (213) are mistaken in thinking that this only applied to the Faculty of Arts.

[308] Collectanea, II, 217, 222-3.

[309] Mun. Acad. 393; Collectanea, ibid.

[310] Mun. Acad. 432.

[311] Cf. Lyte, 106.

[312] This at least was the later practice; Clark, Register of the Univ., Vol. II, Pt. I. p. 180: the statute in Mun. Acad. 432 (‘quomodo Regens,’ &c.) may mean that the presiding master proposed the questions; perhaps this refers only to the Arts Faculty.

[313] See decree of 1586 in Clark, Reg. of Univ., Vol. II, Pt. I, p. 120—evidently an attempt to return to an older custom: cf. Mun. Acad. 433-4, though this probably refers only to the Act.

[314] Assisi MS., No. 158, questio 185: Hugh of Hertepol however probably presided in this case; see Part II.

[315] Ibid, questio 159.

[316] Trivet, Annals, p. 306; Lyte, 214.

[317] Bale, Script. Brit., Vol. I, p. 306: ‘in vesperiis Adae.’

[318] Trivet, ut supra.

[319] Mun. Acad. 392: ‘sicut in ecclesia Virginis gloriosae honorem recipit magistralem.’ Perhaps it was always unusual to hold the Act anywhere except in St. Mary’s.

[320] Rashdall, Early Hist. of Oxford; Church, Quarterly Review, Vol. XXIII; Lyte, p. 213 seq.; Mon. Franc. I, 135.

[321] Friar John Smyth, Minorite, was created D.D. by the Abbat of Winchcombe; Reg. G. 6, fol. 31 b. Cf. Mon. Franc. I, 348.

[322] Mun. Acad. 433: ‘Incepturi quidem suas legant in principio lectiones, deinde quaestiones, quas disputare voluerint, proponentes Magistris opponant.’

[323] Clark, Regist. of the Univ., Vol. II, pt. I, pp. 144, 180, 121.

[324] Mun. Acad. 433 (passage quoted in note 3 of this page).

[325] Cf. Assisi MS. No. 158, questio 117: ‘questio domini Archidiaconi essexte in inceptione sua: respondit archidiaconus Oxon’.’

[326] No. 158 in the Municipal (formerly conventual) Library at Assisi. Some of the questions have the names of Cambridge friars attached to them (e.g. Letheringfont; and questio 104, frater Johannes Crussebut apud Cantebrigiam); two are disputations by Minorites at Paris and in curia. The names of seculars and Friars Preachers also occur.

[327] See e.g. John Brown, Regist. G. 6, fol. 107, 185. Robert Sanderson, ibid. fol. 107 and 171: contrast W. German, ibid., fol. 187, 301. The generalizations in this paragraph are derived from an examination and analysis of all the entries, relating to the Franciscans, in the University Registers to the end of the year 1525.

[328] Mun. Acad. 434.

[329] Ibid. 480; cf. Regist. A a, f. 2.

[330] Ibid. 450-1.

[331] Ibid. 353, &c.

[332] Two Short Treatises, &c. (ed. 1608), p. 30.

[333] See Part II.

[334] Bodleian MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, fol. 79 b, cap. X. De expensis studencium evitandis.

[335] p’nis, principiis (MS.).

[336] Mun. Acad. 353-4.

[337] Regist. G. 6, f. 187 b; J. Smyth (1513).

[338] Regist. A a, fol. 7 (printed in Boase’s Reg. p. 287).

[339] Reg. A a, f. 128; cf. ibid. 122. Ednam was probably in an exceptional position: shortly after this he became Bishop of Bangor; Le Neve, Fasti.

[340] e.g. on Nov. 27, 1506, ‘supplicat frater Johannes Smy?th ordinis minorum s. t. b. quatenus secum graciose dispensetur sic quod quinque libre solvende in die admissionis sue possunt sibi sufficere pro sua composicione. Hec est concessa condicionata quod quinquies dicat missam de quinque vulneribus et ter dicat missam de trinitate pro bono statu regentium ante Pascha.’

[341] Regist. G. 6, fol. 169 b: cf. Regist. H. 7, f. 140, S. Thornall (printed in Appendix).

[342] e.g. W. German, W. Walle: see Part II.

[343] Regist. H. 7, f. 117.

[344] Reg. G. 6, f. 177, G. Sander.

[345] Mun. Acad. 755: cf. Ric. Ednam above. A monk gave robes to all the Regent Masters of Arts at his inception in 1360; Mun. Acad. 223.

[346] Mun. Acad. 419, 451, 452.

[347] Ibid. 453.

[348] Or earlier: see Mon. Franc. I, 347.

[349] Regist. A a, f. 83.

[350] Ibid. f. 62 b.

[351] Reg. H. 7, f. 6 b.

[352] Reg. G. 6, f. 207.

[353] Ibid. f. 104 b, and f. 199 b: cf. N. de Burgo, H. 7, f. 117 b.

[354] Reg. G. 6, f. 194 b: cf. T. Frances, H. 7, f. 68.

[355] Mun. Acad. 396; Reg. G. 6, f. 213 b (R. Saunderson), 214 (G. Sawnder), &c.

[356] Registers, passim.

[357] Reg. A a, f. 51 b, J. David (see Appendix); G. 6, fol. 39, Gerard Smyth; H. 7, fol. 117, N. de Burgo.

[358] Regist. G. 6, f. 39 b, W. Gudfeld (see Appendix), &c.

[359] e.g. Regist. A a, f. 119, John Alien; H. 7, fol. 119, N. de Burgo.

[360] Regist. G. 6, fol. 257 b.

[361] Regist. H. 7, fol. 51b: cf. D. Williams (ibid.): ... ‘predicet unum sermonem in ecclesia divi pauli London, et solvat angelum aureum ad reparationem baculi inferioris bedelli artium.’ Cf. ibid. fol. 64, the same friar was to pay 12d. for the same purpose.

[362] See the will of William Maryner, ‘citezein and salter of London,’ in Somerset House (P.C.C. Fetiplace, qu. 8), A. D. 1512: ‘Item, I bequeth to the exhibucion of a vertuons scoler of the said freeres Minours (of London) to be provided and ordeyned of the goode discrecion of the said wardeyn of the place, v^li.’ Cal. of State Papers, Hen. VIII, Vol. III, p. 497: May 24, 1521, ‘to a Grey Friar for his exhibition at Oxford 8d.’ (weekly?).

[363] Bullarium Romanum, I, 251 (‘Martiniana,’ A. D. 1430), cap. X: ‘... ita et taliter quod cuilibet studenti pro posse provideatur de suis necessariis, tam pro libris, quam pro reliquis opportunis, de communibus eleemosynis per procuratorem receptis pro quolibet conventu sive loco nativo fratris ad studium promovendi. Exhortantes strictissime in visceribus Jesu Christi ceteros fratres aliorum locorum, quod quum viderint idoneos ad studia promovendos, totis viribus eisdem impendant auxilium, consilium et favorem, ... quaerendo pro eis eleemosynas, recommendando valentibus subvenire,’ &c.

[364] See note 7: cf. Wiclif, Trialogus, IV, cap. 35 (p. 369): ‘... quilibet consumat annuatim in persona sua de bonis regni centum solidos et totidem in aedificationibus,’ &c. Lyte, p. 93, on cost of living at Oxford: cf. Palmer, in Reliquary, Vol. XIX, p. 76; the king supported Dominicans at Langley at the rate of 3d. a day each, A. D. 1337.

[365] Bodl. MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, fol. 80.

[366] Twyne, MS. IV, 173.

[367] See Wood-Clark, II, 386.

[368] The Register as edited by Boase has been relied on in the main. J. Whytwell, described by Boase as a friar, was a Minorite (Reg. A a, fol. 23 b): similarly John Harvey (Acta Cur. Canc. F, f. 212 b), and J. de Castro (ibid. F, f. 263). Edward Drewe (sup. for B.A. in June, 1505) is called friar by Boase, not in Reg. G. 6, f. 1. Simon Clerkson was a Carmelite. Reg. I, 8, f. 279.

[369] Those described merely as friars or monks and whose Order I have not discovered, I have omitted in this calculation.

[370] M. Gryffith (Boase, 168) is described in one place as Dominican, in another as Franciscan: I have counted him among the Dominicans.

[371] MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, fol. 11 b (Bodleian): ‘Nullus frater cameram habeat clausam vel a dormitorio sequestratam, ministris exceptis et lectoribus in generalibus studiis constitutis. Nec in studiis aliorum fratrum habeantur velamina vel clausura, quominus fratres inter (? intra) existentes patere possint aspectibus aliorum.’ This MS. dates from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and contains ‘Constitutiones fratrum Minorum’ made at various times. This extract is from the constitutions of Bonaventura as re-enacted in 1292. Cf. Mon. Franc. I, 195; Lanerc. Chron. p. 130. In the sixteenth century the Oxford Carmelites seem to have had a separate ‘cubiculum’ each; Acta Cur. Canc. EEE, f. 249 b.

[372] Wiclif, Two Short Treatises, &c., cap. 13 (p. 30). The custom seems to have been new in his time.

[373] Cf. note 1. Several grants of timber to the Dominicans ‘ad studia facienda’ occur in the early records; e.g. Close Roll, 42 Hen. III, m. 2; Liberate, 45 Hen. III, m. 6; Close, 53 Hen. III, m. 6, seven oaks to the friars Preachers, Oxford, ‘for the repair of their studies.’ Representations of these studia are not uncommon in mediaeval pictures and illuminations. Savonarola’s studium is still in the Dominican monastery of S. Marco, Florence. Cf. also M. Lyte, p. 204.

[374] Bullarium Romanum, I, 251.

[375] MS. Canonic. Misc. 75, f. 80 b: cap. x, ‘de libris donatis vel legatis cuivis communitati seu persone ordinis,’ &c.

[376] Cf. Burney MS. 325 in principio: ‘Istum librum emit Johannes Ledbury, de ordine fratrum minorum, a magistro Gilberto Hundertone, de elemosina amicorum suorum.’ (A. D. 1349.) In Liberate Roll, 30 Hen. III, m. 10, is a grant of ten marks to a friar, apparently a Minorite of Northampton, ‘ad unam Bibliotecam emendam.’

[377] Mon. Franc. I, 359-360. Adam Marsh writes to the Provincial, ‘rogans obnixius quatenus ... Bibliam carissimi P. de Wygornia piae recordationis eidem (sc. fratri Thomae de Dokkyng) ad usum salutarem assignare velitis.... Insuper non desunt qui de pretio libri memorati cumulatius, ut audio, satisfaciant.’

[378] MS. Canonic. ut supra; cf. Burney MS. 5, Bible belonging to Minorites of St. Edmundsbury, ‘cujus usus debetur fratri Waltero de Bukenham ad vitam.’

[379] Mon. Franc. I, 349: ‘Plures, aut audio, reperientur opportuni ad nunc dictum fratris obsequium (i.e. to act as Secretary to Friar Ric. of Cornwall), si scripturae quos ex studiosa praefati fratris R. (Cornubiae) vigilantia manibus suis conscripserint, singulis suae concedantur in usus utilitatis privatae, tam ad communitatis profectum ampliorem.’

[380] Bullarium Romanum, I, 110. Friars Minors promoted to bishoprics, &c. shall give up to the General or Provincial Minister ‘libros et alia quae tempore suae promotionis habent,’ as these must really belong to the Order. (A. D. 1255.) The books were however practically treated as private property; see e.g. a MS. in the Bodleian, Laud. Misc. 528, ‘quondam Johannis Ston et Agnetis uxoris ex dono Johannis, fratris ordinis Minorum.’ Cf. ibid. No. 176; Ball. Coll. MS. 133, f. 1, &c.

[381] MS. Canonic. ut supra, where careful and elaborate instructions are given: e.g. ‘meliores seu utiliores libri semper remaneant in conventu’; ‘Libri vero ad communitatem custodie pertinentes distribuantur in provinciali capitulo fratribus ejusdem custodie tantum per ministrum et diffinitores juxta disposicionem custodis et fratrum discretorum,’ &c.

[382] Opera Ined. p. 13.

[383] Mon. Franc. I, 391. The MS. of Adam Marsh’s letters in the Cottonian Collection was probably written in the Franciscan Convent at Oxford.

[384] Merton Coll. MSS. 168, 169, 170, 171.

[385] Gascoigne, Loci a libro veritatum (ed. Rogers), pp. 103, 140. Cf. Gottlieb, Mittelalterliche Bibliotheken.

[386] Stevens, Wood, &c.: who however do not assert it positively.

[387] Close Roll, 10 Hen. III, m. 6 (3rd Sept.). The usual meaning of Biblioteca in mediaeval Latin is Bible, and this may possibly be the meaning here.

[388] Mon. Franc. I, 634 (from Bartholomew of Pisa).

[389] Nic. Trivet, Annales, 243.

[390] Mon. Franc. I, 185, letter to the Dean of Lincoln: ‘scriptis ... tam editis quam translatis.’

[391] MS. Bodl. 198.

[392] Gascoigne, passim; cf. note in Balliol Coll. MS. 129, fol. 7 (the handwriting is, I think, Gascoigne’s): ‘et nota quod in illo armario sive libraria (sc. fratrum minorum Oxon.) sunt optimi libri et specialiter ex dono domini R. Grostete ... qui fecit plures libros ibi existentes.’

[393] Note in Bodleian MS. quoted in preface to Grostete’s Epistolae, p. xcvi.

[394] Gascoigne, pp. 102 and 174.

[395] Ibid. pp. 126, 177.

[396] Ibid. p. 138.

[397] Ibid. p. 126.

[398] Twyne, MS. XXI, 496: ‘ex tomo 2^o et lib. 5^o Doctrinalis Antiquitatis Ecclesiae Th. Waldeni fratris Carmelitae de Sacramentis, cap. 77.’

[399] Annales Minorum, I, 364. The first of these sermons, if not both of them, is contained in MSS. Royal 6 E v, 7 E ii, f. 251 b; Laud. Misc. 402, f. 133; Phillipps, 3119, fol. 62. The sermon de laude paupertatis was preached on the feast of St. Martin to Franciscans: ‘sumusque in loco paupertatis et inter professores paupertatis.’ Cf. Mon. Franc. I, 69.

[400] See Gascoigne, pp. 102-3.

[401] Ibid. 140. William of Wykeham left his sandals to his college at Oxford; Register Arundel, fol. 215.

[402] ‘Comment. de rebus Albionicis,’ quoted in Wood MS. F 29 a, fol. 166, and 177 b. John Twyne lived c. 1500-1581.

[403] Wood-Clarke, II, 405, books of Richard Middleton; also some writings of Robert Kilwardby, mentioned by Boston of Bury (Tanner, Bibl. p. xxxviii.)

[404] ‘Libellus praeterea est instar catalogi de eruditis Franciscanis, quem olim vidi, atque adeo legi in collegio ei sectae dicato propter Isidis Vadum.’ Leland, Script. 268; other references to it, ibid. 269, 272, 289, 297, 302, 304, 315, 325, 326, 329, 406, 409, 433. It must have been compiled in the 15th century.

[405] MS. Balliol Coll. 129, fol. 7.

[406] Lambeth MS. 202, fol. 99 b: ‘et preter istas omelias super Jerimiam et ezechielem, scripsit idem Jeronymus 18 libros super ysaiam prophetam et 14 libros super ezechielem, ut patet inter fratres Minores Oxonie, ubi isti libri sunt’ (note by Gascoigne).

[407] Wood, Hist. et Antiq. (Latin ed.), p. 83; a note from Gascoigne: the book contained a full account of Grostete’s quarrel with Innocent IV in the chapter on Excommunication. MSS. of the work are Royal 7 C. XV, and Caius Coll. 184.

[408] Wood-Clark, II, 380; cf. R. Bacon, Opera Ined. p. 88. Hebrew was taught at Oxford in the fourteenth century; Twyne, MS. XXIV, 94, 101: cf. Wadding, VI, 199, on the efforts of Friar Raymund Lully to secure the teaching of oriental languages at Oxford and elsewhere.

[409] MSS. usually contained anathemas against any one who should deface or remove them. Persons into whose possession they came would naturally seek to obliterate all traces of their former ownership; e.g. in Royal MS. 3 D. I (fol. 234 b) the words ‘conventui fratrum minorum Lichefeldie’ (the former owners of the book) are almost obliterated; ‘a fure viz. qui codicem abstulerat,’ remarks Casley: cf. Bodl. MS. Canonic. Misc. 80 (a thirteenth-century Bible), ‘olim Fratrum ordinis Minorum de ...’

[410] Nos. 348 and 403. It is not expressly stated whether the latter belonged to the Oxford Franciscans; see Smith’s Catalogue, p. 166. I do not know the age of either of these MSS.; probably c. 1500.

[411] MS. Bodl. 198.

[412] Now Lincoln Coll. MS. 54: see p. 61, n. 7.

[413] Lambeth MS. 202 (sec. xiii). It cannot be certainly identified: the volume has been rebound and several leaves cut out at the end. There is nothing to indicate to what house or Order the book belonged. On fol. 81 occurs a note on the title of the ‘Catalogus’ of St. Jerome, with the addition: ‘Hoc Mag. Thomas Gascoigne Oxonia in Collegio de Oriell Ebor’ diosic’ natus; 1432.’ In Ball. Coll. MS. 129, f. 7, is the note, apparently in Gascoigne’s writing, ‘qui liber (sc. virorum illustrium) est in armario fratrum minorum Oxonie; et continet idem liber plures alios bonos libros.’ Lambeth MS. 202 contains also several treatises by St. Augustine, Isidore, &c.: see Todd’s Catalogue.

[414] MS. Cott. Vitell. C. viii: cf. Mon. Franc. I, p. lxix.

[415] Among the contents are, treatises against the Mendicant Orders, Grostete’s sermon in praise of poverty, Eccleston’s Chronicle, Impugnacio Fratrum Minorum per Fratres Praedicatores apud Oxon’, and other tracts relating for the most part to the Franciscans.