BOOKS AND LIBRARIES.
Absence of privacy.--Books of individual friars.--The two libraries,
and their contents.--Grostete’s bequest.--Extant manuscripts once in
the Franciscan Convent.--Alleged illegal detention of books by the
friars in 1330.--Richard Fitzralph’s statements.--Richard of Bury on
friars’ libraries.--Dispersion of the books.--Leland’s description of
the library in his time.
It is difficult to realise the external conditions under which the friars
produced their works. At the end of the thirteenth and in the early part
of the fourteenth century--the period of their greatest literary
activity--privacy must have been almost unknown. Only ministers and
lectors at the Universities were allowed to have a separate chamber or
compartment shut off from the dormitory[371]. But there can be little
doubt that, from Wiclif’s time onwards[372], each Doctor of Divinity had
his chamber; and every student had some place allotted to him, in which
stood a _studium_, or combined desk and book-case[373]. Every student
friar had books set apart for his especial use[374]; these books were
obtained by gift or bequest[375], by purchase[376] or by assignation by
the Provincial[377] or Warden[378], or they had been copied out by the
friar himself[379]. Alexander IV expressly declared that they were not the
private property of the individual friars[380]; on the death of the friar
who had had the use of them, they reverted to the convent, or were
distributed to others ‘by the Warden with the consent of the convent and
licence of the minister[381].’
There is no reason to suppose that the friars had a chamber specially set
apart as a _scriptorium_; they were comparatively free from the legal
routine or ‘office-work’ which the administration of their vast estates
imposed on the monks and their clerks. But the transcription of
manuscripts was part of the regular work of the Oxford Franciscans; and it
is indeed the only kind of manual labour expressly mentioned in connexion
with the convent. Roger Bacon’s statement[382] that he could only get a
fair copy of his works made for the Pope by writers unconnected with his
Order, means merely that there were no professional scribes among the
Minorites of Paris. The vellum which Adam Marsh asked the Custodian of
Cambridge to send at his earliest convenience[383], may have been intended
for original compositions of the friars, but it was probably to be used
for a careful fair copy of some work--perhaps a Missal or a book of the
Bible. Several manuscripts, containing the works of Nicholas Gorham, are
still extant, which Friar William of Nottingham copied at Oxford with
‘tedious solicitude’ and ‘laborious diligence,’ at the expense of his
brother, Sir Hugh of Nottingham[384].
It was naturally in the libraries that most of the literary treasures were
stored. In the fifteenth century there were two libraries in the
Franciscan convent at Oxford, the library of the convent and the library
of the student friars[385]. There is no evidence that either was founded
by Grostete[386]. The convent probably received its first considerable
collection of books from Adam Marsh, to whom his uncle, Richard Marsh,
Bishop of Durham, bequeathed his library in 1226[387]. The next book we
hear of at the Grey Friars is the volume of Decretals purchased by
Agnellus[388]--doubtless the _Decretum_ of Gratian with the additions
codified by Raymund of Pennaforte and approved by Gregory IX in 1230. In
1253, Grostete,
‘because of his love for Friar Adam Marsh, left in his will all his
books to the convent of Friars Minors at Oxford[389].’
From a rather obscure passage in one of Adam’s letters[390], this would
appear to mean all Grostete’s writings ‘both original and translated,’ not
all the books which he possessed: on the other hand, a copy of St.
Augustine’s _De Civitate Dei_ is extant which the friars received from
Grostete[391]. These works of _Lincolniensis_ were in the library in the
middle of the fifteenth century, when Dr. Thomas Gascoigne was allowed to
consult them[392]. He mentions particularly having seen a complete copy
of Grostete’s letters[393], his autograph gloss or exposition on the
Epistles of St. Paul[394], two copies (one of them autograph) of his
commentary on the Psalter[395], a treatise against luxury[396], and
another _super textum_[397], both written by his own hand. Boston of Bury
notices his translation of the _Testamenta XII Patriarcharum_ in the same
place. Friar Thomas Netter of Walden refers to a book _De Studio_ by
Grostete, with autograph notes by the author, which he had seen in the
Minorite convent[398]; and Wadding mentions two more treatises, or rather
sermons, which Grostete gave to the friars--one _De Laude Paupertatis_,
the other _De Scala Paupertatis_[399]. Probably all these were in the
library of the convent[400]. Another relic of Grostete preserved there was
his ‘episcopal sandals made of rushes[401].’
The statement that all Roger Bacon’s works were in these libraries rests
on the authority of John Twyne[402], but it is not probable that his
writings were ever collected in one place. No doubt the works of the
scholastic philosophers, and chiefly of the Franciscan schoolmen[403],
formed the bulk of the library; which also contained a bibliographical
compilation of considerable value, namely the _Catalogus illustrium
Franciscanorum_, of which Leland often makes use[404]. St. Jerome’s
‘Catalogue of Illustrious Men,’ was there bound up with ‘many other good
books[405],’ his commentaries on Isaiah and Ezechiel[406], a book called
_Speculum Laicorum_[407], and a few Hebrew and even Greek
manuscripts[408].
Few only of the MSS. seem to have been preserved; very few at any rate can
be identified[409]. Caius College possesses two of them, a copy of the
Gospels in Greek and a Psalter in Greek[410]. The volume (already referred
to) containing St. Augustine’s _De Civitate Dei_, with Grostete’s
annotations, is now in the Bodleian[411]. A thirteenth-century MS. of some
of Grostete’s lesser works, with St. Augustine’s _De Concordia quatuor
Evangeliorum_, given to Lincoln College by Gascoigne, was perhaps obtained
by him from the Franciscan library[412]. The copy of Jerome’s ‘Catalogue
of Illustrious Men,’ which Gascoigne saw in this library, appears to be
extant among the MSS. in Lambeth Palace[413]. It may be reasonably
conjectured that the single copy of Adam Marsh’s letters[414], and some or
all of the treatises bound up in Phillipps MS. 3119[415], were also kept,
or at any rate written, in the Oxford convent. The following interesting
notes occur in a Digby manuscript in the Bodleian[416]:--
‘For the information of those wishing to know the principles of the
musical art, this book, which is called _Quatuor principalia Musice_,
was given by Friar John of Tewkesbury to the Community of the Friars
Minors at Oxford, with the authority and assent of Friar Thomas of
Kyngusbury, Master, Minister of England, namely A. D. 1388. So that it
may not be alienated by the aforesaid community of friars, under pain
of sacrilege.’... (At the end), ‘This work was first finished on the
4th of August, 1351. In that year the Regent among the Minors at
Oxford was Friar Symon of Tunstede, D.S.T., who excelled in music and
in the seven liberal arts. Here ends the treatise called _Quatuor
principalia_, which was put forth by a Friar Minor of the custody of
Bristol, who did not insert his name here because some thought scorn
of him’ (_propter aliquorum dedignacionem_).
Sometimes, if we may believe their accusers, the Friars obtained books by
less creditable means than gift, bequest, or purchase. In 1330[417] the
Sheriff of Oxfordshire received a writ from the King instructing him
‘to command the Warden of the Friars Minors at Oxford and friar Walter
de Chatton to give back to John de Penreth, clerk, justly and without
delay, two books of the value of forty shillings, which they are
unjustly keeping, as he says’;
failing this the said friars shall be summoned to appear before the King’s
justices at Westminster. The Sheriff forwarded this writ to the Mayor, but
the latter declared that the friars were not subject to his jurisdiction,
‘and therefore nothing was done in the matter[418].’
The friars had on all sides the reputation of being great collectors of
books. Richard Fitzralph, the famous Archbishop of Armagh, was fond of
exaggeration[419], and no one will accept without considerable
modifications his statement, made before the Pope in 1257[420], that the
friars have grown so numerous and wealthy,
‘that in the faculties of Arts, Theology, Canon Law, and as many
assert, Medicine and Civil Law, scarcely a useful book is to be found
in the market, but all are bought up by the friars, so that in every
convent is a great and noble library, and every one of them who has a
recognised position in the Universities (and such are now innumerable)
has also a noble library.’
Some rectors of churches, whom the Archbishop had sent to the
Universities, had even been obliged to return home owing to the
impossibility of getting Bibles and other theological books. Perhaps these
rectors were not filled with a passionate desire to learn. In 1373 the
University passed a statute against the excessive number of unauthorized
booksellers in Oxford[421].
Richard of Bury mentions the great help he received from Dominicans and
Franciscans in collecting his books[422], and bears testimony to the
magnificence of the libraries of the Mendicants which he visited:
‘there we found heaped up amid the utmost poverty the utmost riches of
wisdom[423].’
But Richard of Bury notices a tendency among the ‘religious’ to
subordinate the love of books to
‘the threefold superfluous care of the belly, clothes, and
houses[424],’
and the tendency became much stronger after his time. The almost[425]
total absence of books in the bequests to the Oxford Franciscans in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is the more striking because of the
frequency of such bequests to colleges. It is said that the Minorites sold
many of their books to Dr. Thomas Gascoigne[426]. Certain it is that in
the latter days they parted with them, just as ‘forcyd by necessitie,’
they parted with their jewels and plate[427]. The exclusion of the
Mendicant Friars from the use of the University Library by the statutes of
1412[428], cannot have been any real hardship to the Franciscans so long
as their own library was intact. In the sixteenth century however this was
no longer the case, and we accordingly find some instances of Franciscans
supplicating for admission to the library of the University[429]. The
earliest instance is in 1507; but, as the registers from 1463 to 1505 are
lost, it would of course be ridiculous to attempt to draw from this fact
any inference as to the date of the dispersion of the books of the
Minorites. Leland visited the Friary shortly before the Dissolution, and
we have from his pen the last description of the once famous
library[430]:--
‘At the Franciscans’ house there are cobwebs in the library, and moths
and bookworms; more than this--whatever others may boast--nothing, if
you have regard to learned books. For I, in spite of the opposition of
all the friars, carefully examined all the bookcases of the library.’