PLACE OF OXFORD IN THE FRANCISCAN ORGANIZATION.
Learned friars as practical workers among the people.--Their
sermons.--Educational organization throughout the country.--Relations
of the Oxford School to the Franciscan Schools of Europe.--English
Franciscans teach at foreign Universities.--Oxford as the head of a
_custodia_.--Provincial chapters held at Oxford.
If the Franciscans became leaders of scholastic thought, they were first
and foremost practical workers. ‘Unfitted as the works of Roger Bacon or
of Raymond Lully might seem to the practical divine, it was for him, not
for the philosophic disputant, whether as a missionary among the Saracens
or a combatant of error and heresy at home, that these works were
written[431].’ In the case of Roger Bacon this is abundantly evident.
‘Before all,’ he writes[432], ‘the utility of everything must be
considered; for this utility is the end for which the thing exists....
The utility of philosophy is in its bearing on theology and the church
and state and the conversion of infidels and the reprobation of those
who cannot be converted[433].... The end of all sciences, and their
mistress and queen,’ is moral philosophy, ‘for this alone teaches the
good of the soul[434].’
It is difficult to resist the temptation of quoting more passages of this
kind[435] (illustrating as they do the Franciscan view of life),
especially as, in the dearth of records, actual instances are hard to
find: one proof however may be brought that it was not all theory. Among
the twenty-two Oxford Minorites, for whom in the year 1300 the Provincial,
Hugh of Hertepol, claimed the episcopal licence to hear the confessions
of the crowds who thronged to the church of St. Francis, eight were then
or afterwards doctors of divinity and theological lecturers to the Friars
at Oxford, and among the others were two names of yet greater fame, Robert
Cowton and John Duns Scotus[436]. It must however be added that, of the
eight friars who were actually licensed by the bishop to hear confessions,
none appears as having subsequently lectured or taken a degree[437].
Here however we may see how the Franciscans brought their philosophy to
the test of experience in the details of everyday life; and they possessed
to a remarkable degree, in spite of--perhaps because of--their learning,
the power of appealing to the hearts of the people.
‘It is the first step in wisdom,’ said Roger Bacon, ‘to have regard to
the persons to whom one speaks[438],’
and his brethren followed this principle in their preaching. ‘Their
sermons,’ says Brewer, ‘are full of pithy stories and racy anecdotes; now
introducing some popular tradition or legend, now enforcing a moral by
some fable or allegory[439].’ It has often occasioned surprise that the
generation which saw the rise of poetry in England, saw also the rise of
English prose--that, in a word, Wiclif was the contemporary of Chaucer.
When we remember that, for a century and a half, men versed in all the
learning of their time had been constantly preaching to the people in the
vulgar tongue in every part of the country, we shall see less cause to
wonder at the vigorous language, the clear and direct expression, of ‘the
father of English prose.’
For the learning of the friars was not confined to the Universities[440].
To the Franciscans Oxford was more than a place for study; it was the
centre of a great educational organization which extended throughout the
land.
‘The gift of wisdom,’ to quote Eccleston’s words, ‘so overflowed in
the English province, that before the deposition of Friar William of
Nottingham, there were thirty lecturers in England who solemnly
disputed, and three or four who lectured without disputation. For he
had assigned in the Universities students for each convent, to succeed
to the lecturers on their death or removal[441].’
However, in practice this rule was not very strictly adhered to. Sometimes
a friar would pursue his studies with a view to becoming reader to a
particular convent[442]; but usually, when an ‘extra-university’
lectureship was founded or fell vacant, the convent applied to the
Provincial Minister for any lecturer they chose[443]. Thus about the year
1250, the brethren at Norwich requested that Friar Eustace of Normanville
should be appointed as their lecturer[444]. Eustace, after consulting Adam
Marsh, declined the office with the Minister’s permission, alleging in
excuse his weak health and his want of the necessary training and
experience; and Adam informed Robert de Thornham, custodian of the
Cambridge ‘Custody,’ in which Norwich was situated, of the decision[445].
The appointments, like those of the Oxford lecturers, were in the hands of
the Provincial Chapter, and the various convents obtained letters of
recommendation from powerful patrons in support of their candidate[446].
The lecturer was appointed for one year, and could be re-elected by the
Provincial Chapter at the request of the convent[447]. Nor was it only to
brethren of their own Order that the friars were sent. For many years a
Franciscan was theological lecturer to the monks of Christchurch,
Canterbury, till at length in 1314 one of his pupils was able to take his
place. His teaching, wrote the monks, in grateful recollection of their
‘lector,’
‘in urbe redolet Cantuarie, ac plures nostre congregacionis fratres
ipsius sedulos auditores ita sacre scripture aspersione intima
fecundavit, quod ipsos ad lectoris officium in scolis nostris
subeundum ydoneos reputamus; nos unum de fratribus et commonachis
nostris predictis loco dicti fratris Roberti ad hujusmodi ministerium
exequendum duximus subrogare[448].’
Thus the friars disseminated over the country, from the universities
outwards, the ‘New Learning’ of the thirteenth century.
But the fame of the Franciscan school at Oxford was not only English, but
European[449]. Friars were sent thither to study not only from
Scotland[450] and Ireland[451], but from France and Aquitaine[452],
Italy[453], Spain[454], Portugal[455], and Germany[456]; while many of the
Franciscan schools on the Continent, both in universities and
elsewhere[457], drew their teachers from England, and, in England, mainly
from Oxford. Eccleston mentions a friar who studied with him at Oxford,
where his lectures, after some failures, won the admiration of Grostete;
afterwards, as his fame increased, he was called by the Minister-General
to Lombardy, and enjoyed a great reputation even at the Papal court[458].
Grostete, on his return from the Council of Lyons, was anxious to get Adam
Marsh out of the neighbourhood of Paris as soon as possible.
‘It is not safe,’ he writes to the Provincial Minister, ‘to let Adam
stay there; for many greatly desire to keep him at Paris, especially
now that Alexander of Hales and John de Rupellis are dead; and so both
you and I shall be deprived of our greatest comfort[459].’
At another time[460] the General writes to the Provincial Minister of
England, requesting him to send English friars to Paris to teach; it was
probably on this occasion that Richard of Cornwall[461] left Oxford to win
the applause of his hearers at Paris. Peckham received his early education
in the schools of his Order at Oxford, and lectured at Paris and at the
Court of Rome[462]. Among those whom the Oxford Convent sent to teach in
the universities of the Continent, were John Wallensis, William of
Gainsborough, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham[463]. All
these names belong to the thirteenth or early fourteenth century; from
that time onwards international jealousies and wars rendered the connexion
of the English universities with Paris far less close, and contemporaneous
with this breach was the beginning of the intellectual decline of the
Order of St. Francis.
Oxford was the head of a ‘custody,’ which contained, according to the list
given by Bartholomew of Pisa[464], seven other convents, namely, Reading,
Bedford, Stamford (Linc.), Nottingham, Northampton, Leicester, and
Grantham. What exactly the organization of a ‘_custodia_’ was, it is
impossible to determine; it was probably always rather indefinite, and
Bartholomew of Pisa points out that in early records the word is used very
loosely[465]. Perhaps it was originally intended to hold chapters of
custodies[466], as well as of provinces and convents. The Custodian had in
early years the right of making and enforcing byelaws in his custody; thus
‘in the custody of Oxford at the head of which Friar Peter was for
twelve years, the brethren did not use pillows up to the time of Friar
Albert the minister[467].’
Each custody had its special characteristic, Oxford being chiefly
remarkable for study[468]. Two Custodians of Oxford, Peter of Tewkesbury
and John of Stamford, became Provincial Ministers[469]. At first the
Wardens of the convents were appointed by the Custodian[470], but in 1240
the right of election was transferred to the convents themselves, and many
friars at the same time demanded the total abolition of the Custodian’s
office, on the ground that it was superfluous[471]. It continued however,
to exist down to the Dissolution and seems to have implied a general right
of supervision; the Custodian was a kind of permanent _visitator_[472].
Several Provincial Chapters were held at Oxford. It was probably a
Conventual, not a Provincial Chapter, before which Grostete, then ‘reading
the act at the Friars Minors,’ preached his sermon in praise of poverty
and mendicancy[473]. Here Albert of Pisa held his first chapter as
Provincial Minister of England, and announced the stern principles which
were to guide his government[474]. Soon after this Elias instituted a
severe visitation throughout the Order, and sent Friar Wygmund or Wygred,
a German, as visitor to England in 1237 or 1238[475]. He held chapters at
London, Southampton, Gloucester, and Oxford[476]. At the latter place the
Warden, Friar Eustace de Merc, was bitterly attacked and excluded a day
and a half from the chapter, though his innocence seems to have been
eventually established[477]. The inquisitorial methods adopted by the
visitor raised a storm of opposition throughout the province, which found
expression, on the completion of the visitation, in a Provincial Chapter
held at Oxford in the summer or autumn of 1238[478]. Here a solemn appeal
to Rome was formulated, and exemption claimed from all visitations, except
those authorized by the General Chapter[479]. The result of this and
similar appeals from the Order was the final deposition of Elias by the
Pope on the 15th of May, 1239[480].
In the spring or early summer of 1248 the Minister-General, John of Parma,
held a Provincial Chapter at Oxford,
‘in which he confirmed the provincial constitutions concerning poverty
in living and buildings (_de parsimonia et paupertate aedificiorum_).
And when he gave the friars the option of confirming or deposing the
Provincial Minister (W. of Nottingham), they unanimously asked that he
might be confirmed[481].’
Eccleston states that in the same chapter the Minister-General
‘recalled the brethren to unity who had begun to surpass the rest in
singular opinions[482].’
For this chapter the King provided one cask of wine and the necessaries of
life[483]. In 1289 three of the four Orders celebrated their Provincial
Chapters at Oxford, that of the Minorites taking place on the feast of the
Nativity of the Virgin (Sept. 8)[484]. No account of the proceedings
remains.
The next Provincial Chapter at Oxford about which we have any information
was held in 1405, at a critical period in the history of the Order in
England. In 1404 ‘a great and very scandalous schism’ arose among the
Franciscans owing to the arbitrary and unconstitutional conduct of the
Provincial, John Zouch[485]. The friars appealed to the Protector of the
Order, the Cardinal-bishop of Sabina, who appointed Friars Nicholas
Fakenham and John Mallaert commissioners, with power to depose the
Provincial, if necessary. The commissioners deposed him in his absence,
called a chapter at Oxford on May 3rd[486], and proceeded to elect a
successor. The Vicar of the Provincial forbade the friars to attend the
chapter.
‘And the commissioners prayed the King to order the friars to assemble
at the chapter at Oxford for the reformation of their religion; and
they obtained royal briefs about this matter[487].’
John Zouche was afterwards reinstated by the Protector of the Order, but
does not seem to have ever made good his authority over the English
Province[488].