CHAPTER III.

‘the cemetery and the houses standing in the same and belonging to the said church,’

with the proviso that the cemetery should always be treated as consecrated[110]ground. The value of the church was 20s.a year[111].

At the Council of Lyons in 1274 the Friars of the Penitence of Jesus Christ, or ‘Friars of the Sack,’ were forbidden to admit new members[112], and the Order came to an end when the old members died out. The Minorites and their friends therefore applied themselves to secure the property. As early as 1296 Boniface VIII wrote to the Bishop of Lincoln, ordering him[113]to allow the Friars Minors to take possession of the house or area of the Friars of the Sack, whenever the five remaining brethren should die or transfer themselves to other religious Orders. At the court of Clement V, the first of the Avignon popes, the claims of the Minorites were urged by John of Britanny, Earl of Richmond; and Clement issued a Bull in their favour, dated the 27th of May, 1309 (VIKal. Jun. AoIV)[114].

‘In a petition exhibited to us on your part,’ runs the document, ‘it is contained that owing to the narrowness of your place at Oxford, you and other friars, there flocking together to the University from divers parts of the world in great multitude, do endure manifold wants and various inconveniences. Since therefore the place of the Friars of the Penitence of Jesus Christ of the same place of Oxford adjoining your place, is shortly, as is believed, to be relinquished by the said Friars, to remain at the disposal of the Apostolic Seat, according to the tenor of the Constitution published by Pope Gregory X, our predecessor, in the Council of Lyons, it is humbly prayed us, that we deign to concede to you that place for the enlargement of your place aforesaid.’

This prayer the Pope goes on to grant ‘of his special favour,’ mentioning the earnest supplications of John of Britanny[115]on behalf of the friars.

The King, however, also had a claim to dispose of lands which his grandfather had granted, and which, in default of heirs or successors, legally escheated to the Crown. By Letters Patent dated the 28th of March, 1310[116], Edward II assigned to the Friars Minors the property which Henry III had previously given to thePenitentiary Friars, with the same stipulation as to the cemetery. The land is accurately described; it was contiguous to the place of the Friars Minors, in the suburb of Oxford, twenty and a half perches long from north to south, six perches wide at the south end, two and a half at the north, and four perches seven feet in the middle.

Letters Patent of the same day[117]confirmed the grant of four other parcels of ground to the Friars Minors: some of these may have been previously held by the Friars of the Sack. The ‘plot of ground in Oxford,’ five perches two feet from east to west, two perches and a half from north to south, conferred on the Minorites by John Wyz and Emma his wife, may have been within the walls, near the West Gate; the others were in the suburb. Henry Tyeys gave land measuring six perches by five, and lying between the site of St. Budoc’s Church and the Thames (Trill Mill Stream); Richard le Lodere’s land, measuring fourteen and a half perches five feet, by four perches and three feet, and stretching from the Thames to the above-mentioned place of Henry Tyeys, was included in the grant, as was a larger plot[118], measuring sixteen and a half perches from the Thames to the ‘royal way,’ and ten perches in breadth; which seems to have included the south part of Paradise Gardens[119].

All these places are described as adjoining the property of the Warden and Friars Minors of Oxford.

It was probably at the instance of the Crown and as a protest against the papal claims that the Minorites a few years later formally surrendered to the King the area which had belonged to the Penitentiaries, ‘in its entirety as it came into their hands,’ and received it back of the King’s special favour in pure and perpetual alms[120].

One fragment of the Penitentiary Friars’ property came into the hands of the Franciscans somewhat later. In October, 1319, anInquisitio ad quod Damnum[121]was held in Oxford to decide whether Richard Cary could, without prejudice to the King or others, bestow on the Friars Minors a place in the suburb of Oxford, adjacent totheir property, and measuring five perches in length and five in breadth. The jurors declared that the grant would not be injurious to the King or others, and that Cary possessed sufficient property in the town to discharge all his civic duties. The place ‘at the time when it was built’ was worth 20s.a year, but now, owing to its ruinous condition, only 2s.Cary held it for a rent of 8s.a year of Johanna, wife of Walter of Wycombe, Agatha her sister, and John son of Alice, who was wife of Andrew Culvard, the heirs of Henry Owayn; they held it of the Prior of Steventon, paying 4d.a year in lieu of all services. The plot was therefore the fee of the Abbat of Bec mentioned above, and is probably the same as

‘the place which the Friars of the Penitence bought of Walter Aurifaber, and they pay thence to the Prior of Steventon 2s.[122]’

A few months previously a similar inquisition[123]was held at Oxford, which resulted in an addition to the Minorite property on the east side within the wall. This was a plot of ground of the annual value of 2s., five perches by six, granted to them by John Culvard. The town, however, claimed the right,

‘at all times when it shall be necessary, to have free entry and egress thence to restore, repair and defend the wall of the said town.’

In 1321[124]Walter Morton obtained leave to grant in mortmain to the Franciscans a place with its appurtenances, measuring five perches by five, in the suburb of Oxford; and similar licence was given to John de Grey de Retherfeld[125]in 1337 to bestow on them a tenement, six perches by five, lying next their habitation on the east side within the town. This brings us to the end of the list of grants of landed property to the Oxford Minorites—a list which we may claim to be fairly complete. It is interesting to note from what classes the donors were drawn. Most of them were men of business—the leading tradesmen of the town[126]. Three of them, Laurence Wych, John Culvard, and Richard Cary, were at various times Mayors of Oxford,and the two latter represented the city in Parliament[127]. Richard Mepham belonged to the higher rank of ecclesiastics. Master Thomas de Valeynes seems to have been a person of some importance in Oxfordshire and the adjoining counties[128].

Buildings.

Of the buildings of the Friars Minors in Oxford we have disappointingly little information—with the exception of the boundary wall already mentioned there are no remains of their house now visible. Excavations might perhaps yield interesting results, but most of the ground is thickly built over, and the information derived from the records and other sources is rarely precise enough to enable us to identify with any certainty the sites of the various buildings.

For the first twenty years the Friary must have presented a very modest, not to say mean, appearance, and the brethren were probably contented to take the accommodation afforded by the houses, which were granted them, with little alteration. The infirmary built by Agnellus has already been noticed. After they had been nearly a year in Oxford, the friars built a small chapel[129]. In 1232, the King gave them

‘thirty beams in the royal forest of Savernak for the fabric of their chapel which they are having built at Oxford,’

adding that

‘if any one in the same bailiwick shall wish to give them timber, the bailiff shall permit them without hindrance to carry through the forest free of toll oaks to the number of thirty[130].’

Probably this refers to the original chapel. It had a choir where the brethren attended and celebrated divine service[131], and at, or over, the door of which stood a crucifix, or wooden cross[132]. It was here, in the choir before the altar, that Agnellus was buried in a ‘leaden box,’ as became thezelator paupertatis[133]. The chapel was pulled down when the new church was finished[134]. Under the auspices of Agnellus rose their first school, which was apparently the finest oftheir early buildings[135]. Whether this was afterwards enlarged, or whether new schools were built on the same site or elsewhere, there is no longer any means of deciding.

These houses were situated within the wall, and it was not till the increase of the ‘area’ between 1240 and 1250 that building on a large scale was commenced between the wall and Trill Mill Stream[136]. The tendency to build was strenuously resisted by the stricter party among the friars—the party which upheld the early traditions of the Order. Eccleston relates how an Oxford friar appeared after death to the custodian and warned him that,

‘if the friars were not damned for their excess in building, they would at any rate be severely punished[137].’

An obscure passage in a letter of Adam Marsh probably refers to the same tendency; even novices, he laments, are taught to neglect the things of the spirit

‘for flesh and blood, for mud and walls, for wood and stone, for any kind of worldly gain[138].’

The opposition of the older generation was, however, unavailing, and a ‘stately and magnificent[139]’ convent began to rise. But of the new friary, too, there are but scanty notices. No English king bestowed on the house of Franciscans at Oxford that loving care which Henry III bestowed on the Minorite Church at Reading, or Edward II on the Dominican Church which rose over the tomb of his ill-fated favourite at Langley. From royal grants we learn that building was going on at the Grey Friars of Oxford in 1240, when ten oaks were given to them by the King for timber[140]. In 1245 (July 7th),

‘the Sheriff of Berkshire was ordered to give to the Friars Minors of Oxford for the works of their houses sixty shillings instead of six oaks which the King gave them before[141];’

and a further grant of six oaks for timber in 1272 shows that the operations were of a protracted nature[142]. From similar sources we find that the Church, which was dedicated to St. Francis, was inprocess of erection in February, 1246[143], and February, 1248[144]. At the latter date the friars are again permitted to

‘enclose the street which extends under the wall of Oxford from the Watergate ... to the small postern in the wall near the Castle.... We grant also that the north side of the chapel built and to be built in the aforesaid street may supply the interruption of the wall as far as it is to reach, the other breaches in the wall being fully repaired as before, except the small postern in the wall, through which the said friars can go and return from the new place where they now live, to the former place in which they used to live.’

It would appear from this that the street was outside the wall. Mr. Parker, however, states positively that it was ‘the inner road’ which they were permitted to enclose[145]; in Wheeler’s Garden, south-west of St. Ebbe’s Churchyard, there used to be a line of old walling, running parallel to the city wall inside, and the space between these walls may have been the street in question[146]. It must be remembered, however, that the friars had already in 1244 acquired the road with the right to enclose it, and to throw down this section of the city wall. In 1248, therefore, we may well believe that little existed of the wall, which on the south side was never a very prominent feature. The church running due east and west would extend along and across the site of the wall, the west end being outside, the east end inside. From the south end of Paradise Place, where the wall juts out southwards for a few yards, to a point about the north end of King’s Terrace, there have long been no signs of the city wall; and it is probably here that the Grey Friars’ Church stood. The tradition is still preserved in the name Church Place. Of the appearance of the church we know little. The roof was tiled[147], like that of the Grey Friars’ Church at Reading; it is probable the east end was flat, and there was no triforium[148]. Wood thinks that one of the eight towers which figured in the pageant at the inthronization of Warham in 1504,represented the tower of the Grey Friars[149]. William of Worcester has left a somewhat puzzling[150]description of the church in 1480[151].

‘The length of the choir of the church of St. Francis at Oxford contains 68 steps. The length from the door (valva) of the choir to the west window contains 90 steps; so in the whole length it contains 150 (?) steps. The width of the nave of the said church on the east (ab orienti parte) contains with the aisle 28 steps. The length of the nave from the south side to the north door contains 40 steps only, and there are ten chapels in the said north nave of the church. The width of the north nave of the church contains 20 steps. The width of each chapel contains 6 steps, and so the width of the whole nave of the church with the ten chapels contains 26 steps. And each chapel contains in length 6 steps. And each glass window of the ten chapels contains three dayes (or lights) glazed.’

Reckoning William’s ‘steps’ at half a yard each[152], and correcting his apparent mistake in addition, we find that the church measured seventy-nine yards from east to west, the choir containing thirty-four yards, and the nave forty-five. At its widest part the church measured twenty yards, ten yards of which were taken up by the north aisle. Hence the width of the nave properly so called, and of the choir, which in friars’ churches is, where it exists, of the same width as the nave[153], was ten yards. The choir was aisleless, and the north aisle was probably the only one in the church: this, too, narrowed from ten yards to four towards the east end of the nave. In 1535 Friar Henry Standish, Bishop of St. Asaph, bequeathed £40 ‘for the building of an aisle joining to the church of the Grey friars, Oxon[154],’ probably on the south side, but it is almost certain that this was never built.

The wider aisle must have extended nearly the whole length of the nave to allow space for the north door and the ten chapels, all of which were built on to the north wall. They would be in part sepulchral chantries, supported by noble families or gilds, often containing the image or shrine of some saint, while the shrine of the patron saint stood behind the high altar. They were presumably later additions, and whether the church in its original form attainedthe proportions here described must remain doubtful. But there is no reason to suppose it was afterwards enlarged to any great extent. In the thirteenth century, benefactors, great and small, were willing and eager to help the friars to raise those splendid buildings which drew forth the fierce denunciations of later reformers; and though much of the church was doubtless built, like that at London, ‘from good common alms[155],’ there can be little question that the chief ‘founder and benefactor’ was the wealthy Richard Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall, and King of the Romans[156]. It was in the choir of this church that his heart was buried[157]

‘under a sumptuous pyramid of admirable workmanship[158].’

Here, too, five years later the remains of his third wife, Beatrice of Falkenstein, were interred, ‘before the great altar[159];’ and many other monuments of nobles and famous men must have given the interior of the church an imposing appearance. Among those buried here were several of the Golafres: the tomb of Sir John Golafre, who died at Quinton, Bucks, in 1379[160], was in the chancel; that of his younger brother, William, was probably in the same part of the church[161]. Sir John’s illegitimate son, John Golafre, knight and lord of Langley, bequeathed his body to be buried next his father’s, if he should die in England[162]; but

‘at the time of his death (1396) he altered his will in that part in which he bequeathed his body to be buried in the chancel of the church of the Friars Minors at Oxford, and willed and also bequeathed his body to be buried in the Conventual Church of Westminster where our lord the King shall dispose[163].’

William Lord Lovell, by a will dated 18 March, 1454/5, made provision

‘to be buried at the Grayfreris of Oxenford in suche place as I have appoynted[164].’

The wills of less distinguished persons occasionally contain information as to the interior of the church. In 1430 Robert Keneyshame, Bedel of the University, willed to be buried in the Franciscan Church,

‘in the midst between the two altars beneath the highest cross in the body of the church[165].’

James Hedyan, bachelor in both laws and principal of Eagle Hall, was buried in the nave[166]. Agnes, wife of Michael Norton, was in 1438 buried

‘in the Conventual Church of the Friars Minors of Oxford before the image of the blessed Mary the Virgin of Pity[167].’

And in 1526 Richard Leke, ‘late bruer of Oxford,’ desired

‘to be buried within the Graye ffreres in Oxford before the awter where the first masse is daily vsed to be saide[168].’

But more honoured than any of these was the ‘fair stone sepulchre[169]’ in which the body of Agnellus, the only Provincial Minister known to have been buried at Oxford, found its final resting place. For the shrine of Agnellus possessed all the fascination of miraculous association and miraculous power. When the friars, many years after his death, went in the night to remove the body from the original chapel before its demolition,

‘they found the little leaden box in which it lay, together with the grave, full of the purest oil, but the body itself with the vestments uncorrupted and smelling most sweetly[170].’

Here, too, we are told, was the tomb of one greater than Agnellus; but if the statement of John Rouse, that Roger Bacon was buried among the Franciscans at Oxford, is anything more than a tradition, it was perhaps not in the church, but in the common burial place of the brethren of the convent, that the Warwick antiquary found his grave[171].

The cloisters, of which we find no mention till the dissolution, were no doubt situated on the south of the church, round ‘Penson’s Gardens.’ Whether the friars were buried in the cloisters, the garth, the chapter-house, or ‘the cemetery of the Friars Minors,’ in which John Dongan was interred in 1464[172]or sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, is unknown. On the east of the cloisters would be the chapter-house[173]; over it, and joining the church, a dormitory[174]. On the south of the cloisters, opposite the church, stood the refectory. It is possible, but not probable, that the long narrow building stretching down towards Trill Mill Stream, which is marked in old maps of Oxford[175], was the refectory: Bridge Street marks the site. The library may have been on the west side of the cloisters, but no hint remains as to the building or its position, while the contents may be more appropriately treated elsewhere. The warden’s house is equally unknown; he may perhaps merely have had rooms set apart in some one of the larger buildings[176], as was probably the case with the vice-warden[177]. From the Lanercost Chronicle we learn that in the thirteenth century the ‘master of the schools’ had a chamber of his own[178]; and Wiclif tells us that in his time

‘Capped Friars, that beene called Maisters of Diuinitie, haue there chamber and service as Lords or Kings[179].’

Ample accommodation for guests was a marked feature in most religious houses, and there is no reason to suppose that the Oxford Franciscan Friary formed an exception to a custom which, while it excited some animosity against the apostles of poverty, tended to ensure the favour and secure the alms of the rich[180].

The convent was supplied with good water by a conduit of leaden pipes, which, according to Wadding, was made in the thirteenth century by a magnate at his own expense, and extended many miles under the watersheds of the Isis and Cherwell[181]. In 1246-7 we hear that the Friars Preachers and Minors had appropriated many places on the Thames, and had made there ‘ditches and walls and other things[182].’ Lastly, there were three gates: one in Freren Street[183], perhaps an entrance to the church through ‘Church Place;’ another in St. Ebbe’s Street, opposite Beef Lane[184], where St Ebbe’s Churchyard now extends; and a third—their principal entrance, which existed in Wood’s time—in Littlegate Street, apparently where the latter is now joined by Charles Street[185].

This completes the list of conventual as distinct from the farm buildings, and if the account is meagre and unsatisfactory, we may try to console ourselves with William of Nottingham’s retort, when a friar threatened to accuse him before the Minister General ‘because the place at London was not enclosed:’

‘And I will answer to the General, that I did not enter the Order to build walls[186].’

FRANCISCAN SCHOOLS AT OXFORD.

Learning necessary to the friars.—The first readers to the Franciscans at Oxford.—Nature of the office of lector; Grostete and Adam Marsh.—The lector and hissocius.—Later lectors were ordinary Regent Masters.—Appointment to the lectureship.—Special regulations concerning the lectors.—System of instruction recommended by Grostete.—Lectures by friars.—Controversy with the University about theological degrees in 1253.—Controversy between the University and Dominicans, and its results.—Study of philosophy (Arts) before theology insisted on by the University.—Roger Bacon on the necessity of a preliminary training for friars.—Extortion of graces by external influence: ‘wax-doctors.’—Career of a student Minorite.—On the numbers of friars sent to Oxford.—Course of study before ‘opposition.’—‘Opposition’ and ‘Responsion.’—The degree of B.D.—Exercises before inception.—The degree of D.D.: the licence.—Vesperies.—Inception.—Questions disputed on these occasions in the thirteenth century.—How far the statutable requirements as to the period of study were a reality.—Expenses at inception.—Necessary Regency.—Conditions on which dispensations were granted.—Maintenance of Franciscan students at the University.—What proportion took degrees.—Relative numbers of the various religious Orders at Oxford.

St. Francis himself was always strongly opposed to the learning of his age.

‘Tantum habet homo de scientia quantum operatur,’ he said, ‘et religiosus tantum est bonus orator quantum operatur[187].’

But it was inevitable that the missionaries to the towns should be armed with a knowledge of theology to enable them to cope with the numerous heresies of the thirteenth century, and with a knowledge of physical science to enable them to cope with the frequent pestilences caused by the disregard of sanitary conditions[188]. In addition to this the influence of many learned men in the Order could not but be felt; and the early Franciscans in England were as zealous for learning as for good works.

‘They were so fervent,’ Eccleston tells us, ‘in hearing the divine law and in scholastic exercises, that they hesitated not to go every day to the schools of theology, however distant, barefoot in bitter cold and deep mud[189].’

Agnellus, though in Wood’s words ‘he never smelt of an Academy or tasted of humane learning[190],’ frankly recognised the necessity. The school which he built at Oxford has already been noticed:

‘but afterwards,’ adds Bartholomew of Pisa[191], ‘he had reason for regret, when he saw the friars bestowing their time on frivolities and neglecting needful things; for one day when he wished to see what proficiency they were making, he entered the schools whilst a disputation was going on, and hearing them wrangling and questioning,Utrum sit Deus, he cried: “Woe is me, woe is me! Simple brothers enter Heaven, and learned brothers dispute whether there is a God at all!” Then he sent 10l.sterling to the Court to buy the Decretals, that the friars might study them and give over frivolities.’

Agnellus rendered the greatest service to his Order by persuading Robert Grostete, the foremost scholar of his time, and the most influential man at Oxford, to accept the post of lecturer to the friars[192]. The exact date at which he undertook these duties is uncertain. He resigned the archdeaconries of Northampton and Leicester in 1231, but he may have been lecturer to the Franciscans some time before this; certainly he was closely connected with their house at Oxford[193]. He was resident in the University in 1234[194], and according to both Eccleston[195]and the Lanercost Chronicle[196], he gave up his lectureship only to accept the bishopric of Lincoln in 1235.

He was succeeded by Master Peter[197], who afterwards became a bishop in Scotland. The third reader was Master Roger Wesham[198], who afterwards (namely in or before 1239) was made Dean of Lincoln, and then (1245) Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield. The fourth was Master Thomas Wallensis, who,

‘after he had lectured laudably at the Friars’ in the same place, was appointed (in 1247) to the bishopric of St. David’s in Wales[199].’

Thomas was made Archdeacon of Lincoln by Grostete in 1238, at which time he was lecturing in Paris[200]; he was then young[201]and it is probable that he was already archdeacon when he lectured to the friars at Oxford.

All these men were seculars, not friars: it was important at a time when, as Roger Bacon says[202], ‘the Order of Minors was new and neglected by the world,’ to secure the services of men of recognised position and ability. Of Master Peter nothing further is known. The other two were certainly close friends of Grostete[203]. Matthew Paris bears testimony to the high character and learning, the kindness and tact, of Roger Wesham[204]. Bacon ranks Thomas Wallensis among ‘the wise men of old[205],’ who studied foreign languages and knew the value of philology; and even Paris admits that this enemy of monks[206]was a man of lofty purpose, and accepted the bishopric of St. David’s, though it was the poorest see,

‘because it was in his native country, Wales, and he desired to console his wretched fellow countrymen by his presence, advice, and help[207].’

The divinity lecturer to the Franciscans or ‘Master of the Schools[208],’ as he was also called, had, as such, no status in the University. It is even doubtful whether he counted as a ‘regent master,’ unless he also lectured in the University Schools. Thus Adam Marsh protested against being required by the Masters to subscribe a new statute on the ground

‘that he had three years ago retired from the office of teaching in their University[209].’

But in a letter written shortly before this, and referring to the same subjects, he mentions that he was ‘lecturing on Holy Scripture’ to the friars[210]. The position of thelectorwas, in fact, not unlike that of a college tutor, except that he was always a man of proved ability and long experience. To the friars he was far more than a theological lecturer; he was a trusted friend, on whose advice and sympathy and help they might reckon in all the conduct of life. Such at least was the tradition established by Grostete and carried on by Adam Marsh[211]. Both of them men versed in affairs of state, both men of acknowledged weight in the counsels of the realm[212], and fearless opponents of illegality and oppression, they not only trained the friars in theology and philosophy, but taught them to comprehend the social needs of the age.

‘I return your lordship,’ writes Adam to Grostete[213], ‘the breviate which you wrote, “Of the rule of a kingdom and a tyranny,” as you sent it, sealed with the seal of the Earl of Leicester;’

and Simon de Montfort had frequent consultations with the friar about his government of Gascony[214]. It was from their daily intercourse with men like these that the Oxford Franciscans became, if not the leaders, the spokesmen of the constitutional movement of the thirteenth century[215]. The corpse of Simon de Montfort wasburied by the Grey Friars of Evesham, and it is probably to the Franciscan school that the Latin poems in his honour are to be ascribed[216], as well as the form of prayer addressed to him:—

‘Sis pro nobis intercessorApud Deum, qui defensorIn terris extiteras[217].’

The Oxford Franciscans regarded him as a saint and a martyr, though he died excommunicate, and testified to the miracles which he wrought[218].

Thelectorhad also hissocius[219], a younger friar who acted as his secretary, and whose time was almost entirely at his disposal. The position of bothlectorandsociuswill be best illustrated by two extracts from the letters of Adam Marsh.

In the first of these[220], addressed to the Provincial, he writes that he has found Friar A. de Hereford, whom the Provincial had assigned to him as hissocius, affectionate and of good character, docile and well-read, and far more capable than ‘some of those who are appointed by the counsel of the discreet to instruct in Holy Scripture.’

Back to Index Next