[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,VIIKal. Nov.,XVIIKal. Nov., Kal. Nov.; Anno 4,IVId. 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. Ao2, transcribed by Mr. Bliss fromRegesta, 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 xlsad 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 theRegist. 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.
AtLondonin 1243, there were80Minorites (Liberate, 28 Hen. III, m. 18: cf. also Q. R. Wardrobe,6⁄3and8⁄1); 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). AtNorwichin 1326,47(Q. R. Wardrobe,25⁄1). AtLynnin 1326,38(Q. R. Wardrobe,25⁄1). AtGloucesterin 1326,40(Q. R. Wardrobe,25⁄1). AtCambridgein 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 atNewcastlein 1299, provision was made for68Minorites (Q. R. Wardrobe,8⁄55f. 4); about 45 years later, for32only (Chapter-house Books, A5⁄10, 149); but this may be explained by reference to the special circumstances of the North. Elsewhere we find an increase.
AtWinchester, there were23Minorites in 1243 (Liberate, 27 Hen. III, m. 2);43in 1315 (Q. R. Wardrobe,24⁄10). AtReading, there were13in 1239 (Liberate, 23 Hen. III, m. 3);26in 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 toA. 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: seesupplicatof 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 adies legibilisamong 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,questio185: Hugh of Hertepol however probably presided in this case; see Part II.
[315]Ibid,questio159.
[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. 213seq.; 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,questio117: ‘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; andquestio104, frater Johannes Crussebut apud Cantebrigiam); two are disputations by Minorites at Paris andin 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 Smyȝth 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, vli.’ 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 thesestudiaare not uncommon in mediaeval pictures and illuminations. Savonarola’sstudiumis 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. 325in 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 ofBibliotecain mediaeval Latin isBible, 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’sEpistolae, 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 2oet lib. 5oDoctrinalis 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 sermonde laude paupertatiswas 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.
[416]Digby MS. 90; this extract is copied from the catalogue. The treatise has been printed under the name of Simon de Tunstede by E. de Coussemaker, ‘Auctores de Musica,’ &c., Vol. IV, pp. 220-299 (Paris, 1876).
[417]Twyne, MS. XXIII, 488, ‘ex chartophylacio civitatis Oxon. In fasciculo Brevium’; (this is not now among the City Records). The date is, ‘T. meipso apud Wodestok, 28 die Martii aoregni nostri 4o,’ i.e. Edward III (not II, as Twyne), who was then at Woodstock; and the mention of P. de la Beche, sheriff, leaves no doubt on the matter (see Wood, Annals, Ao1327).
[418]Twyne, ut supra: ‘In dorso brevis, ita: “Gardianus ordinis fratrum minorum et frater Walterus de Chatton confrater ejusdem Gardiani nihil habent in balliva nostra extra sanctuarium ubi possunt summoneri seu attachiari; ideo de eis nihil actum est.”’
[419]e.g. his statement that in his time there were 30,000 students at Oxford.
[420]Sermon in Twyne, MS. XXII, 103 a-b.
[421]Mun. Acad. 233.
[422]Philobiblon (ed. E. C. Thomas), pp. 65-8.
[423]Ibid. (§ 135).
[424]Ibid. p. 47.
[425]The will of Henry Standish contains a bequest of five marks for books (1535); this is the only instance which I have found. See list of bequests in Chapter VII. On the other hand it must be remembered that a friary produced its own books.
[426]See note by Gascoigne in MS. Bodl. 198, fol. 107 (A. D.1433): ‘et nota quod omnes note et figure in margine istius libri fuerunt scripte propria manu sancte memorie Magistri Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi Lincolniensis, et librum dedit mihi sponte sub sigillo suo conventus fratrum minorum Oxonie.’ Gascoigne is said to have given the books which he had from the Minorites to the libraries of Balliol, Oriel, Lincoln and Durham Colleges; this MS. was given to Durham College.
[427]Cromwell Corresp. (Rec. Office), Second Series, Vol. XXIII, fol. 709 b. Leland, who was evidently received with scant courtesy by the Franciscans, and who is consequently very bitter against them (he calls them ‘braying donkeys’), remarks on the dispersion of the books: ‘Nam Roberti episcopi volumina et exemplaria omnia, ingenti pretio comparata, furto ab ipsis Franciscanis, huc illuc ex praescripto commigrantibus (aut ut verius loquar) vagantibus sublata sunt’; quoted in Wood-Clark, II, 381-2.
[428]Mun. Acad. p. 264.
[429]Register G, fol. 35 a (A. Kell); Acta Cur. Cancell. F, fol. 156 b (W. German and J. Porret).
[430]Leland, Collect. Vol. III, p. 60. Cf. Wood-Clark, II, 381-2. Leland mentions only one library; but he probably saw all that was to be seen.
[431]Brewer, Mon. Francisc. I, p. li. See the rest of his luminous remarks there, and in his preface to R. Bacon, Opera Inedita.
[432]Opera Ined. pp. 19-20, Opus Tertium.
[433]Cf. Ibid. p. 116, on the potential value of burning-glasses in the Crusades.
[434]Ibid. 53. Cf. p. 50, ethical part of moral philosophy: ‘et haec est pulchrior sapientia quam possit dici.’
[435]e.g. Opus Majus, 46; Opus Tert. pp. 3-4, 10-11, 40, 48, 84; Opus Minus, 323; Compend. Studii, 395, 397, 400 sqq., &c.
[436]Twyne, MS. II, fol. 23, from Register of D’Alderby, bishop of Lincoln; printed in Wood, Hist, et Antiq. (Lat. ed.), p. 134, and in Wood-Clark, II, p. 386. It may seem bold to identify ‘Johannes Douns’ with the great schoolman, but there is no doubt he was a young friar at Oxford at the time (he lectured at Oxford c. 1304); and he is in company with many other prominent schoolmen of the time.
[437]Two of them were already D.D.’s.
[438]Opera Inedita, p. lvi. Cf. Sir Francis Bacon: ‘non accipit indoctus verba scientiae, nisi prius ea dixeris quae versantur in corde ejus.’
[439]Mon. Francisc. I, li. See ‘Les contes moralisés’ of Friar Nicholas Bozon. Wiclif is less complimentary to Friars’ sermons: they are ‘japes’ pleasing to the people, and ‘rimes’; Select Works, III, 180. The old school of theologians, secular and monastic, and the clergy disliked them intensely.
[440]The Franciscans at Northampton receive ten oaks to build a house for their schools; Close Roll, 42 Hen. III, m. 6 (dated Oxford, June 26).
[441]Mon. Franc. I, 38. Brewer (p. xlix) gives a misleading version of the passage. The original of the last part runs thus: ‘Assignaverat enim in Universitatibus, pro singulis locis, studentes, qui decedentibus vel amotis lectoribus succederent.’
[442]e.g. Thomas of York for Oxford, Mon. Franc. I, 357.
[443]It was not necessary that he should have been at anystudium generale. Thus the Dominicans complain that a friar who has often lectured on the sentences and Bibleextra universitatemcannot lecture on the Bible at Oxford unless he is a B.D.Acta Fratrum Praedicatorum, Collectanea, II, 226. Cf. Clement IV’s constitutions for the Friars Minors in 1265, Bullarium Romanum, p. 130, § 5: ‘Fratres autem de ordine vestro, quos secundum institutiones ipsius ordinis conventibus vestris deputandos duxeritis in lectores, sine cujusquam alterius licentia libere in domibus praedicti ordinis legere ac docere valeant in theologica facultate (illis locis exceptis in quibus viget studium generale), ac etiam quilibet in facultate ipsa docturus solemniter incipere consuevit.’
[444]Mon. Franc. I, letter 178. It is no doubt addressed to W. of Nottingham (who died 1251), as in a letter written later than this and referring to R. de Thornham, Adam mentions ‘Peter minister of Cologne,’ i.e. P. of Tewkesbury, Nottingham’s successor in the English Provincialate; ibid. letter 183.
[445]Ibid. letter 179.
[446]Harl. MS. 431, fol. 100 b (printed in Appx. B). Wadding, Vol. X, p. 156 (cap. viii of the ‘Martiniana,’A. D.1430); Vol. XIII, 73.
[447]Harl. MS.ut supra. Cambridge Public Library, MS. Ee. V. 31, contains letters addressed by the convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, to the Provincial Minister and Chapter of the Friars Minors in England, requesting permission for Friar R. de Wydeheye to continue to act as master of their schools; the letter was written every year; e.g. in 1285, 1286, 1287, &c.: see ff. 21 b, 24 b, 28, 29, 34, &c.: cf. Wilkins, Concilia, II, 122.
[448]Cambridge MS. Ee. V. 31, fol. 156 b, ‘Littera fratris Roberti de Fulham quondam lectoris nostri de conversacione sua.’ It is doubtful whether he is the same as Robert de Wydeheye mentioned in the preceding note, and whether he had been at the University.
[449]See Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. d. Mittelalters, VI, 63 (A. D.1292) and Wadding,Sup. ad Script.717 (A. D.1467); printed in Appx. B.
[450]Scotland for many years formed part of the English province. Mon. Franc. I, 32; Wadding, IV, 136.
[451]Stephen of Ireland, Malachias of Ireland, Maurice de Portu, &c.
[452]William de Prato; perhaps N. de Anilyeres, or Aynelers, or Anivers (Mon. Franc. I, 316, 379, 380). Several English students returned to Oxford from Paris before taking their degree (e.g. Ric. of Cornwall; Mon. Franc. I, 39); and probably many came over during the dissensions at Paris in the middle of the thirteenth century. See also decree of Gen. Chapter of Milan, 1285; ‘Provintia Aquitanie potest mittere unum studentem Oxonie’; Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. d. Mittelalters, VI, 56.
[453]See Part II, Peter Philargus of Candia (Alex. V), John de Castro of Bologna, Nic. de Burgo, Francis de S. Simone de Pisa, &c.
[454]Rymer’s Foed. IV, 30. It was probably in Paris that Roger Bacon was laughed at by the Spanish scholars at his lectures; Opera Ined. 91, 467.
[455]Part II, Gundesalvus de Portugalia, Peter Lusitanus, etc.
[456]Mon. Franc. I, 313, Part II, Hermann of Cologne, Mat. Döring; Anal. Francisc. II, 242: ‘Provinciae seu studia, ad quas et quae Provincia Argentinensis studentes de debito transmittere potest; videl. Oxoniae, Cantabrigiae,’ &c.
[457]Mon. Franc. I, 38: ‘Usque adeo fama fratrum Angliae, et profectus in studio aliis etiam provinciis innotuit, ut minister generalis, Frater Helias, mitteret pro Fratre Philippo Walensi et Fratre Ada de Eboraco qui Lugduni legerunt.’ Lyons was not agenerale studium; Denifle, I, 223.
[458]Mon. Franc. I, 39. As the passage is of great interest, it may be quoted at some length: ‘An excellent lecturer, who studied with me at Oxford, used always in the schools, when the master was lecturing or disputing, to employ himself in the compilation of original things instead of attending to the lecture. Now when he had become lecturer himself, his hearers became so inattentive, that he said he would as lief shut up his book every day and go home, as lecture; and conscience-stricken he said, “By a just judgment of God, no one will listen to me, because I would never listen to any teacher.” He was besides, since he consorted too much with seculars and thus paid less attention to the brethren than was usual, a living example to the others, that the words of wisdom are only learnt in silence and quiet.... But after he had returned to himself and applied himself to quiet contemplation, he made such excellent progress that the Bishop of Lincoln said that “he himself could not have delivered such a lecture as he had delivered.” So, as his good fame grew, he was called to the parts of Lombardy by the General Minister, and in the very court of the pope was in high repute. But at last, as he was in the extreme agony, the Mother of God, to whom he had always been devoted, appeared to him, and drove away the evil spirits, and he was held worthy, as he afterwards revealed to a friend, to enter happily to the pains of purgatory. For he told him that he was in purgatory and had great pains in his feet, because he was wont to go too often to a holy woman (religiosam matronam) to console her, when he ought to have been intent on his lectures and other more necessary occupations; he begged him also to have masses celebrated for his soul.’
[459]Grostete, Epistolae, p. 334.
[460]Mon. Franc. I, 354.
[461]See Part II.
[462]Peckham’s Reg. p. 977, and Part II.
[463]For dates and authorities, see notices of these friars in Part II.
[464]Liber Conformitatum, fol. 126. This list does not always agree with Eccleston; the latter mentions e.g. a ‘custody of Salisbury,’ p. 27.
[465]Liber Conform. f. 99. For a curious use of the word, see Liberate Roll, 17 Hen. III, m. 10; thecustodesof the houses of Friars Minors in Dublin were seculars and trustees of their property.
[466]Liber Conform. ibid.
[467]Mon. Franc. I, 27. In the custody of Cambridge the brethren did not use ‘mantles.’
[468]Ibid.
[469]See notices in Part II.
[470]Evers, Analecta, p. 60.
[471]Ibid., and Mon. Franc. I, 48. The custodian admitted novices to profession; Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. VI, 89.
[472]Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camden Soc.), p. 217. The word is sometimes used as equivalent togardianus; e.g. Acta Cur. Cancell.F. fol. 53 b. Cf. W. of Esseby, Warden and Custodian of Oxford, Mon. Franc. I, 10, 27.
[473]Mon. Franc. I, 69. If we may believe Eccleston, the sermon seems hardly to have expressed Grostete’s real convictions; he told W. of Nottingham in private, ‘quod adhuc fuit gradus quidam superior, scilicet vivere ex proprio labore.’ On this sermon, see Chapter IV, p. 58.
[474]Ibid. 55; ‘in festo Purificationis,’ i.e. Feb. 2nd, prob. anno 1237.