THE DISSOLUTION.
Attitude of the Grey Friars towards the Reformation in its
intellectual, religious, and political aspects.--The
Divorce.--Visitation of Oxford in 1535.--Suppression of the friaries
in 1538.--Condition of the Grey Friary.--Expulsion of the friars;
their subsequent history; Simon Ludford.--Houses and site of the Grey
Friars.--Dr. London tries to secure the land for the town.--The place
leased to Frewers and Pye; bought by Richard Andrews and Howe; resold
to Richard Gunter.--Subsequent history of the property.--Total
destruction of the buildings.
The intellectual torpor which oppressed Oxford for more than a century
after the disappearance of Wiclif and his followers was due less to the
repressive measures adopted by Archbishop Arundel, than to the want of
vitality, of adaptability to new modes of thought, in the scholastic
philosophy and method, with which the intellectual life of Oxford had for
so long been identified. The University as a whole did not extend a warm
welcome to the New Learning, and it was to be expected that the Mendicant
Orders especially should be attached to the old state of things, with
which their past greatness was connected, and to which their present
position and any prestige they still possessed were due[749]. The Grey
Friars consequently were inclined to oppose the revival of learning; and
Tyndale no doubt classed them among ‘the old barking curs, Duns’ disciples
and like draff called Scotists, the children of darkness,’ who ‘raged in
every pulpit against Greek, Latin, and Hebrew[750].’ Dr. Henry Standish,
sometime Warden of the Grey Friars of London and Provincial Minister of
England, attacked Erasmus’ version of the New Testament in a sermon at
Paul’s Cross and in conversation at Court, and seems to have been the
recognised leader of the ‘Trojan’ party in England[751]. But even among
the Minorites there are traces of the influence of the Renaissance.
Another Provincial Minister, Richard Brynkley, was a student of Greek, and
was supplied with a copy of the Gospels in Greek from the Franciscan
Library at Oxford. Friar Nicholas de Burgo seems to have been one of that
band of Humanists whom Wolsey attracted to Oxford, that they might
propagate in his own University the learning and culture of Italy[752].
The close historical relation, notwithstanding the fundamental
differences, between the intellectual movement and the religious movement,
was neatly expressed in a saying current among the friars: ‘Erasmus laid
the egg; Luther hatched it[753].’ The beginnings of the English
Reformation in its religious aspect are to be sought among the educated
classes, especially at Cambridge. The Minorites, while generally hostile
to the new religion[754], did not take a leading part in suppressing it.
And when it is remembered how very little progress the Lutheran doctrines
made in England before the Dissolution, the few instances of sympathy with
those doctrines recorded in the lives of Oxford Franciscans acquire a
certain importance[755]. These, however, were exceptional cases. If we
trace the fortunes of individual Franciscans after the Dissolution, it
will be found that no generalization as to their attitude towards the
Reformation can be made. A few remained loyal to the old religion[756],
others embraced the new[757], and on both sides persecution was suffered
for conscience’ sake[758]; others again contrived to reconcile themselves
with both old and new according to circumstances[759].
With the Reformation as a political movement, the Franciscans had more
sympathy. A large section of them had, long before this, taught the
supremacy of the State over the Church in all things political[760]; they
approved in principle the confiscation of Church-property for the common
good[761]; and Friar Henry Standish, in defending the claim of the
temporal courts to try and punish criminous clerks, together with the
broad principles on which that claim rested, was only applying to present
circumstances the time-honoured traditions of his Order[762]. It is true
that the Friars of the Observance resisted the royal supremacy in 1534.
But the supremacy claimed by Henry VIII went beyond anything asserted by
his predecessors, involving, as it did in effect, the establishment of a
lay jurisdiction superior to all ecclesiastical courts _in spiritualibus_
as well as _in temporalibus_, constituting Henry ‘a king with a pope in
his belly’[763]. The Franciscans at Oxford seem, like most of the
religious, to have accepted the supremacy in this extended form and to
have taken the oath without demur: at least there is no evidence to the
contrary[764].
The oath administered to the monks and friars involved an acknowledgment,
not only of the royal supremacy, but of the lawfulness of Henry’s divorce
from Katharine and marriage with Anne Boleyn, and a promise to preach the
same on every occasion[765]. The attitude of the Oxford Franciscans to the
divorce, so far as it can be ascertained, may be briefly stated here.
Henry attached great importance to securing a decision in favour of his
divorce from the chief universities of Europe. The divorce became the
all-absorbing topic at Oxford; and individual Minorites took a prominent
part in the discussions. But the convent as a whole did not present a
united front. Dr. Thomas Kirkham, a Franciscan, is mentioned as one of the
Doctors of Divinity who opposed the divorce and were ready to write
against it[766]. Dr. Kynton seems to have been on the same side at
first[767]; Archbishop Warham complained of his having spread calumnious
reports about himself in connexion with the ‘King’s matter,’ and demanded
his punishment. But it is doubtful whether in the end Kynton had the
courage of his opinions; he was one of the committee of three appointed by
the theological faculty to decide the question with the assistance of
thirty other members to be nominated by the smaller committee[768]. This
body subsequently issued, in the name of the University, the qualified
declaration in favour of the King, the tenour of which is well-known.
The most active champion of the King’s cause was also a Minorite, Dr.
Nicholas de Burgo, a native of Italy, who enjoyed the patronage of
Cardinal Wolsey[769]. The unpopularity of the divorce, among those who
were guided by their sentiments rather than by their personal interests,
is shown by the treatment he received at Oxford. He was pelted with stones
in the street, and the good women of the town would have ‘foyled’ him ‘if
their handys might have served their harts’[770]. In retaliation the friar
caused about thirty women to be locked up in Bocardo for three days and
nights[771]. As we shall see later on, his services did not go
unrewarded[772]. The position of Friar Nicholas, however, was exceptional,
and his action cannot be regarded as representative of the feelings of the
Oxford Convent.
The causes which led to the dissolution of the monasteries do not concern
us here. The friaries were not included in the Act of 1536 for the
abolition of the lesser monasteries; they possessed as a rule no estates
except the site on which they were built, and the gains to be derived from
their disendowment were perhaps regarded as insufficient compensation for
the odium which the measure would necessarily involve. The first blow had
already fallen upon the Observant Friars, the fearless champions of the
legality of the Queen Katharine’s marriage and of the Papal supremacy. The
conventuals were left alone till Henry decided on the general suppression
of the religious houses throughout England. The object of the royal party
was then to obtain what was called a ‘voluntary’ surrender of their
property from the members of each religious community; and among those
who had the courage to offer opposition were many houses of Franciscans,
‘with hom,’ writes the Bishop of Dover, ‘in every place I have moche
besynes’[773]. But among these we cannot reckon the convent at Oxford.
In 1535 Cromwell sent his agent, Layton, and others, to Oxford to reform
the University. After abolishing the study of the schoolmen[774], the
visitors proceeded to deal with the religious students[775]. For the
reform of the monasteries, they were armed with a set of eighty-six
articles of inquiry and twenty-five injunctions[776], the real though not
avowed object of which was to make monastic life unbearable and so to
prepare the way for ‘voluntary’ surrenders[777].
‘We have further,’ writes Dr. Layton to Cromwell on the 12th of
September[778], ‘in visitynge the religiouse studenttes, emongyste all
other injunctions, adjoyned that none of them for no manner of cause
shall cum within any taverne, in, alhowse, or any other howse
whatsoever hit be, within the towne and the suburbs of the same, upon
payne onse so taken by day or by nyght, to be sent imediatly home to
his cloister whereas he was professede. Withoute doubte we here say
this acte to be gretly lamentede of all the duble honeste women of the
towne, and specially of ther laundres that now may not onse entre
within the gaittes, and muche lesse within ther chambers, wherunto
they wer ryght well accustomede. I doubt not but for this thyng onely
the honeste matrones will sew unto yowe for a redresse.’
It is probable, that, between this time and the summer and autumn of 1538,
when the general dissolution of the friaries took place, many of the
Oxford Franciscans had left their house[779]. The Friary, it will be seen,
was wretchedly poor and in a ruinous condition; ‘and few do geve any almys
to them’[780]. The commission to visit the Oxford friaries in 1538
consisted of Dr. John London, the mayor (Mr. Banaster) and ‘master
aldermen’ (apparently Mr. Pye and Mr. Fryer). On the 8th of July[781], Dr.
London writes to Cromwell that he and his fellow-commissioners have been
‘at all the places of the fryers in Oxforde,’ and wishing ‘to know your
lordeships pleasur’ on certain doubtful points, he proceeds to give an
account of his work.
‘At Mr. Pyei’s comyng home Mr. Maier and Mr. ffryer wer at London, and
forasmoch as we dowbtyd of ther spedy comyng home, and Mr. Pye and I
wer creadable informyd that it wasse time to be doing among the
friers[782], we went to euery place of them and tok such a vew[783]
and stay among them as the tyme wolde permytt.’
After visiting the Carmelites and Austin Friars, they came to the Grey
Friars.
‘The Grey ffryers,’ continues London[784], ‘hathe prayty Ilondes
behynde ther howse well woddyde, and the waters be thers also. They
haue oon fayre orchard and sondry praty gardens and lodginges. It ys a
great hoge howce conteynyng moche ruinose bylding. They haue impledged
and solde most of ther plate and juellys forcyd by necessitie as they
do saye, and that remaynyth ys in the bill. Ther ornamentes of ther
church be olde and litill worthe. Ther other stuff of howsholde ys
ybill worth x łi. They haue taken vppe the pypes of ther condytt
lately and haue cast them in sowys to the nombre lxxij, wherof xij be
sold for the costes in taking vppe of the pypes, as the warden saith.
The residew we haue putt in safe garde. Butt we haue nott yet weyd
them. And ther ys yet in the erthe remaynyng moch of the condytt nott
taken vppe. In ther groves the wynde hathe blown down many great
trees, wich do remayn upon the ground. Thees freers do receyve yerly
owt of thexchequer of the Kinges almys l markes. Thys howse ys all
coveryde w{t} slatte and no ledde.’
Before August the 14th the doctor had sent up the plate of the Oxford
friaries to Cromwell’s servant in London, Mr. Thacker, and received from
him ‘a bill indentyd conteynyng the parcels of the sayd plate w{t} the
nombre of ownces.’[785] The following is the list of
Juelles and plate in the grey ffryers[786].
Imp’mis a crosse of sylu’ and gylt liiij vnc’.
A chales all gylt xiiij vnc’.
A nother all gylt xv vnc’.
A nother p̱cell gylt xiij vnc’.
A nother chales p̱cell gylt xiiij vnc’ et di.
A pyxe of sylu’ gyldyd w{t} owt a cou’ xv vnc’.
A sensar of sylu’ waynge xxxij vnc’.
A payer of small cruettes gylted ij vnc’ iij qrt’.
V masers olde w{t} bonds of sylu’ weyng w{t} the
trees[787]. lxxxxij vnc’.
A black horne w{t} sylu’ bonde and fot weyng w{t}
the horne x vnc’ et di.
iij dosyn sponys xxxiij vnc’.
A knappe[788] of the cou’ of a maser ij vnc’.
The treatment of the friars themselves was a more complicated problem. All
of them seem to have been willing to become secular priests, and London
urged
‘that with spede we may haue ther capacyties, ffor the longer they
tary the more they will wast[789].’
On the 14th of August[790] he complains that
‘as yet we haue nott the capacities and therfor be at the chardge in
fyndyng them mete and drink.’
On the 31st of August, again, he writes to Cromwell from Oxford[791]:
‘I have causyd all our fower ordre of fryers to change ther cotes, and
have despacchide them as well as I can till they may receyve ther
capacities, for the wiche I have now agen sent uppe thys berar doctor
Baskerfelde[792], to whom I do humblie besek your lordeschippe to
stonde gudde lorde. He ys an honest man, and causyd all hys howse to
surrendre the same and to chaunge ther papistical garmentes. I wrote
to your lordeschippe specially for hym to have in hys capacytie an
expresse licens to dwell in Oxford, altho he wer benefycyd; and your
lordeschipp then wrote that yt wasse your pleasur he and all other
shulde have ther capacities according to ther desyer, and for that
thys man is now an humble sutar unto your lordeschippe. He hath be a
visitar of dyvers places wiche they do call custodies, and knowith
many thinges as well in London as otherwise, wiche he hath promised me
to declare unto your lordeschippe, if it be your pleasur he schall so
do.’
The list of Oxford Grey Friars who ‘wold haue ther capacytis’ which was
sent to Cromwell[793], contains eighteen names, thirteen of them being
priests, one subdeacon, and four not in holy orders. The names are:
Edward Baskerfelde, Warden, S.T.P.[794]; Friars Brian Sanden, Richard
Roper, B.D., Rodulph Kyrswell, Robert Newman, William Brown, John Covire
(or Conire or Comre), James Cantwell, Thomas Cappes, John Stafforde Schyer
(?), William Bowghnell, James Smyzth, Thomas Wythman, priests; Friar John
Olliff, subdeacon; and Friars Symon Ludforth, Thomas Barly, William Cok,
and John Cok, _non infra sacros_.
It is not often possible to trace the subsequent career of the friars when
they had been turned adrift on the world. The monks as a rule received
pensions, and the entries respecting the payment of these in the
Ministers’ Accounts and other records, afford some clue to their fate. The
Mendicants except in a few isolated cases received no pensions. Dr. London
in his letter of the 8th of July[795] asked Cromwell
‘what reward euery freer shall have ...[796] at ther departinge,’
but the question no doubt refers merely to the gift of a few shillings,
which was usually made to each friar on his dismissal. No instance occurs
in the records of a pension having been paid to any of the Grey Friars who
were at Oxford at the time of the suppression[797]. It is probable that
Baskerfeld, who was an important person in the University, received a
benefice with license to live in Oxford. Robert Newman seems also to have
been presented to a living[798]. But the career of only one of these
eighteen friars can be traced with any certainty. Simon Ludford, a native
of Bedford, became an apothecary in London. On November 6, 1553, he
supplicated for the degree of M.B. at Oxford after six years’ study in the
medical faculty. On November 27, he obtained the degree and was admitted
to practise. The College of Physicians remonstrated with the University
and recommended that the degree should be revoked on the ground of
Ludford’s ignorance. Though the University refused to withdraw its
license, the ex-friar proceeded to Cambridge, but the Physicians hastened
to warn the authorities there against him. They had, they wrote to the
University, already examined Ludford ‘on the 17th day before the Calends
of March, 1553’ (?), and, finding him completely ignorant of medicine,
philosophy, and the liberal sciences, and distinguished only by ‘blind
audacity,’ unanimously voted against his admission. Ludford left
Cambridge, but persevered. In May 1560, he supplicated for the degree of
M.D. at Oxford, stating that he had long practised in London by permission
of the London College of Physicians. In July he incepted as M.D. of
Oxford. In April 1563 he was made fellow of the College of Physicians, and
he was censor of the same College in 1564, 1569, and 1572.[799]
We turn now to the Minorites who had studied at Oxford, but who were
living in other convents at the time of the dissolution. Of these a
considerable number obtained benefices[800], a few even rising to
positions of some importance in the Church[801]. But what proportion these
successful cases bore to the unsuccessful cannot be even approximately
ascertained; it would naturally be higher among friars who had received a
university education than among the common herd. Yet it is unlikely that a
majority even of the former were presented to livings. The number of
disbanded monks and friars seeking employment as priests must have been
very large, and at the same time the demand for priests was growing less
and less.[802] Some of the friars probably drifted into secular
employments; others perhaps joined the ranks of the ‘sturdy beggars’ of
whom so much is heard in the sixteenth century. It can hardly be doubted
but that the lot of many was one of hardship and suffering.
In the eyes of Cromwell and his royal master the only question of real
importance was the most advantageous disposal of the property. The
buildings of the Grey Friars were of little account, and the convent was
among those
‘howses of freres that have no substance of lead, save only some of
them haue smale gutters[803].’
The site, however, was of considerable value, Dr. London was anxious that
it should be secured for the city; and his letter[804] gives a curious
picture of the state of Oxford at the time of the dissolution.
‘It ys rumoryd her that dyuers of the garde do intende to begge thees
howsys of the Kinges hyghnes, and that with other consideracions
moveth me now to be an humble petitioner vnto your lordeschippe for my
neybours. We haue in Oxforde two of the Kinges grace’s seruantes Mr.
Banaster and Mr. Pye, two as burgerly and as honest men as lyveth in
any town and hathe no thing to lyve vpon, nother farmes abrode nor
fees saving oonly ther wages of the Kinges grace iiij_d._ a daye. Mr.
Banaster ys now mayer, and Mr. Pye hath be mayer, to hys great
chardge.’
The writer then urges that Mr. Banaster should have the site (‘cyte’) and
profits of the White Friars, Mr. Pye those of the fair of the Austin
Friars.
‘Mr. Pye specially hath be diligent to bring vnto the Kinges grace’s
hondes thees howses, and therefor I besek your gudd lordeschipp to be
gudd lord vnto hym. And syns Mr. Mayer com home he ys as diligent as
maye be and so is Mr. ffryer.’
London goes on to plead for his ‘neybours of Oxford,’
‘seying so gudd an occasion ys come wherin your lordeschipp may do
vnto them the hyest benefytt that euer dydd honorable man. The
greatest occasion of the povertie of thys town ys the payment of ther
fee-farme. ffor thys ys customablie seen, that such as befor they haue
be bayliffes hath be prety occupyers, if in ther yere corn be nott at
a hie price, then they be nott able to pay ther fee-farme. And for the
worschipp of ther town they must that yere kepe the better howsys,
fest ther neybours and wer better apparell, wich maketh them so pore
that few of them can recouer agen. If by your gudde lordeschips
mediation the town myȝt haue the grey and black fryers growndes after
the Kinges grace hath be answerd for the wodd and buyldinges with
other thynges upon the same, and lykewyse the cytes of the Whyte and
austen fryers after the decese of Mr. Banester and Mr. Pye; It wolde
mervelosly helpe the town, and geve them great occasion to fall to
clothynge, ffor vpon the grey and black fryers water be certen
convenyent and commodiose places to sett fulling mylles vpon, and so
people myȝt be sett awork. Now the baylys forcyd by necessitie taketh
such tolls of such as passith by the town with catell or any maner of
cariage as makith men lothe to com herbye; and Oxford ys no great
thorowfare whereby moche resort schuld helpe them. Thys benefytt shuld
lytill hynder the kinges maiestie and mervelosly helpe thys pouer
town; and your lordeschipp schuld do a blessyd dede to helpe so many
pouer men wich by ther fee-farme be notably poverischyd. And yet the
Kinges grace schuld save a C markes yerly in hys cofers by reason of
the grey and black fryers wich hath euery of them C (_sic_) markes by
yere.’
The plan here sketched out, creditable as it is to its author, was not
carried into effect. On August 10th, 1540, William Frewers and John Pye of
Oxford, obtained a lease of the house and site of the Grey Friars,
together with the grove containing by estimation five acres, for
twenty-one years, at a rent of 20_s._ a year--half the amount of the rent
which the same persons paid for the Black Friars[805]. Much of the Grey
Friars’ property was expressly excepted from this lease; namely, the close
called ‘le Churcheyarde’ now held by Richard Gunter of Oxford at an annual
rent of 3_s._ 4_d._, the orchard or garden called ‘Paradise,’ and the
garden called ‘Boteham,’ now held by William Thomas at an annual rent of
6_s._ 8_d._ Further all large trees and shrubs were reserved to the King,
together with all those buildings within the precincts of the two friaries
‘which the King had commanded to be levelled or taken away.’
In 1544 the tenants seem to have opened negotiations for the purchase of
the property. In the official ‘particulars’ sent up to the royal
commissioners we read:
‘These houses of ffryers ar wythin the towne of Oxford and as I haue
lernyd they ar not nyghe eny of the Kinges houses neyther hys graces
parkes fforestes and chase by seven myles. And what ffyne wylbe gyuen
ffor the same I know not neyther can lerne. And they ar the ffermers
them selues y{t} desyreth to by the premysses[806].’
The price which the tenants offered was probably unsatisfactory; the
impecunious Pye with his wages of 4_d._ a day can hardly have had a chance
against wealthier speculators in monastic lands. In 1544 a successful bid
was made by Richard Andrewes of Hales, Esquire (Glouc.), one of the
largest of these speculators[807], who as usual was acting in partnership
with another, in this case John Howe. On July 14th, 1544, the King granted
to these two, in consideration of £1094 3_s._ 2_d._ paid by Richard
Andrewes, various monastic lands in the counties of Derby, Middlesex,
Oxford, &c., including the sites of the Black and Grey Friars in
Oxford[808].
‘We give also and for the aforesaid consideration by these presents
concede to the said Richard Andrewes and John Howe, the whole site of
the house late of the friars Minors, commonly called “les Grey
ffreers” within the town of Oxford now dissolved. And also our whole
grove of land and wood with its appurtenances containing by estimation
five acres of land, now or late in the tenure or occupation of William
ffrewers and John Pye or their assigns; and our whole close of land
called ‘le Churcheyarde’ with its appurtenances, now or late in the
tenure or occupation of James Gunter or his assigns; and our whole
garden or orchard called “Paradyse,” and our whole garden called
Bateham or Boteham, now or late in the tenure or occupation of William
Thomas or his assigns, with all and each of their appurtenances
situated within the town of Oxford, lately belonging to the priory or
house of the friars Minors ...; and all our houses, buildings,
stables, granaries, curtilages, gardens (_ortos_), orchards, gardens
(_gardina_), waters, ponds, vineyards, land and soil whatsoever with
their appurtenances lying within the said boundary of the house of the
friars Minors.... Which site of the late house of friars Minors and
all the aforesaid houses, buildings, gardens, orchards, &c., belonging
thereto, now amount (_extenduntur_) to the clear annual value of
30_s._... We except however always and totally reserve out of the
present concession, all the bells and the whole of the lead and glass
on the said houses of the friars Minors and Preachers, except the lead
and glass in the gutters and windows of the houses or mansions of the
same friars: and also in like manner all the buildings and structures
of the late churches, cloisters, refectories, dormitories, and
chapterhouses of the said friars.’
All the property granted was to be held by Richard Andrewes and John Howe
and the heirs and assigns of Richard Andrewes, in chief, ‘for the service
of the twentieth part of one knight’s fee.’ An annual rent was to be paid
to the King from each parcel of property, the rent of the site of the
Friars Minors being 3_s._, that of the Friars Preachers 4_s._
The purchase was purely a matter of speculation, and the next month
(August 26th, 1544), Andrewes and Howe obtained from the King, for a fine
of 9_s._, license to alienate the site of the Grey Friars, with the grove,
churchyard, Paradise, and Boteham, and the buildings, except those already
reserved for the King, to Richard Gunter, alderman of Oxford, and Joanna
his wife, and the heirs and assigns of Richard Gunter, to be held by them
‘for the services due thence to us, our heirs, and successors[809].’ It
does not appear whether the leases of Frewers, Pye, and Thomas, were
cancelled or allowed to run their course.
The subsequent history of the property is obscure, and probably would not
repay an exhaustive investigation. Wood states that the land
‘being shifted through severall hands doth now acknowledg also
severall owners[810].’
Part of it was ‘now inhabited by tanners[811].’ The island or grove on the
south of Trill Mill stream belonged
‘to Sir William Moorton, Kt., Judge of the King’s Bench, in right of
his wife Anne, daughter and heir of John Smyth of Oxford, Gent[812].’
Writing about a century later, Peshall states that the site
‘now forms the messuage or Tenement and large Yard of Charles Collins,
Gent; the Garden, Orchard, and Tenement of Swithin Adee, M.D., late
Sir James Cotter’s, Bart., and the large Garden and Orchard called
Paradise Garden. The Island in their possession ... is occupied by Mr.
Shirley, which serves partly for a Tan Yard and Buildings necessary
thereto[813].’
In a short time little was left of the buildings--so complete was the work
of destruction. ‘The trees were soon cut down, all the greens trod under
foot, the church thrown down, and the stones, with the images and
monuments of the greatest value, scattered about[814].’ The name only
survived; Agas in his map (1578) puts the _Graie Friers_ where the house
of the Black Friars stood. ‘The ruins of this college are gone to ruine,’
wrote Wood, ‘and almost lodged in obscurity[815]:’ and the ‘scanty
fragments’ (_rudera paucula_) which were visible to Hearne and Parkinson
as they walked towards the Watergate[816] have long since vanished. Even
the use to which the materials were put is unknown. Some of the stones
form no doubt the foundation-work of many houses in St. Ebbe’s: but while
something definite is known about the materials of the Houses of the other
Mendicant Orders, the records are silent respecting the greatest of the
friaries[817].
_PART II._
_BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES._
CHAPTER I.
CUSTODIANS AND WARDENS.
1. W. of Esseby, Warden and Custos, c. 1225.--2. E. de Merc, Warden,
1237.--3. P. of Tewkesbury, Custos, 1236-1248.--4. J. of Stamford,
Custos, 1253.--5. Martin, Warden, c. 1250.--6. Adam of Warminster,
Warden, 1269.--7. J. Codyngton, Warden, 1300.--8. J. of Okehampton,
Warden, 1340.--9. R. Clyff, Custos, 1465.--10. R. Salford, Warden,
1488.--11. W. Vavasour, Warden, c. 1500.--12. R. Burton, Warden (and
Custos), 1508.--13. W. Goodfield, Warden, before 1513.--14. J. Harvey,
Warden, 1513.--15. E. Baskerfield, Warden (and Custos), 1534.
Unlike the Abbots and Priors of the _religiosi possessionati_, the heads
of the Mendicant Houses required no royal assent to their appointment.
Their names consequently do not occur in the royal records, and to this
fact is due the incompleteness of the following list of the custodians and
wardens of the Grey Friars at Oxford. It is a noteworthy if not surprising
fact, that not a single original work by any of these men can now be
found.
=William of Esseby= (perhaps Ashby in Norfolk)[818], the first warden, was
one of the four clerks who came to England with Agnellus in 1224; he was
then a young man and a novice, having recently joined the Order in
France[819], and only assumed the habit of a _professus_ when he became
warden at Oxford[820]. He was among the first three Minorites authorized
to preach in England[821].
When the English Province was divided into custodies (c. 1226?), he was
made custodian of Oxford[822]. Afterwards he was sent to found the
convent at Cambridge, and Eccleston draws a strange picture of him
solemnly chanting the service, with one other friar and a crippled novice,
in the wooden shed which served for a chapel[823]. Later William is heard
of at Northampton[824]. About 1238, he was sent by Friar Wygmund, the
German _visitator_ of England, to visit Ireland; his mission here proved
as abortive as that of the German in England; on his return he went to
Cologne to join Wygmund[825]. He had ceased to be warden or custodian of
Oxford before 1237[826]. He was alive when William of Nottingham became
Provincial Minister, and died ‘after many years’ at London[827].
Eccleston gives him a high character. He was specially distinguished for
his obedience.
‘When Friar Gregory, the Provincial Minister of France, asked him
whether he would like to go to his native land, he said, he did not
know what he would like, because his will was not his own, but the
Minister’s; so, whatever the Minister would, he would[828].’
By his tact he did much towards winning for his Order the affection of the
world, and he was instrumental in leading many fit persons of various
ranks and ages ‘to the way of salvation[829].’
Cambridge Univ. Library, MS. Ii I. 24, p. 332. seq. (sec. xiv)
contains a sermon by the ‘_Prior de Essebi de artificioso modo
predicandi_,’ and other sermons perhaps by the same author. Tanner and
others suggest that this Essebi may be the Franciscan: but ‘Prior’ was
a title unknown in the Franciscan Order. The author was probably a
Prior of Canons Ashby.
=Eustace de Merc= was a member of the Oxford convent in the lifetime of
Agnellus, and had license to hear confessions; he was warden at the time
of the visitatorial chapter held by Friar Wygred or Wygmund in 1237-8. On
this occasion many accusations were brought against him, in consequence of
which he was for a day and a half excluded from the chapter; the charges
are not specified and do not seem to have been proved. After fulfilling
the duties of warden for a long time, he became custodian of York. The
date of his death is unknown.
While he always showed to others ‘the sweetness of an angelic affection,’
he subjected himself until the end of his life to the severest discipline;
even in his earlier years, his fasts and vigils and self-inflicted stripes
endangered his health, and called forth the remonstrances of his
superiors[830].
=Peter of Tewkesbury.= It is uncertain whether ‘Friar Peter, custodian of
Oxford’ is to be identified with Peter of Tewkesbury; but a comparison of
the dates, so far as they can be ascertained, brings out nothing
inconsistent with this supposition, and we shall put the facts about both
of them together. Peter of Tewkesbury was warden of London about 1234;
about this time he went to Rome with Agnellus and some Friars Preachers on
behalf of the English prelates[831]. Agnellus confessed to him on his
death-bed and constituted him his vicar[832]. When Albert of Pisa was
Provincial, Friar Peter was custodian of Oxford; he held the office for
twelve years (1236-48?)[833]. During the generalship of Haymo, ‘Friar
Peter, custodian of Oxford’ was one of the three friars chosen for the
English province to note doubtful points in the Rule[834]. In 1245 he
again appears as custodian; Adam mentions having written a detailed
account to him about the proceedings at or before the Council of
Lyons[835]. Peter of Tewkesbury was at the general chapter of the friars
at Genoa in 1244, and remained afterwards to obtain and take back two
Papal bulls about the Friars Preachers and Minors, evidently the
revocation of the bull providing that no Minorite should receive the
_obligati_ of the Preachers into his Order[836]. When John of Stamford
fell ill on his return from Lyons, Peter of Tewkesbury was sent to Mantes
to come back with Adam Marsh, at Grostete’s request[837]. In 1250 he was
minister of Cologne[838]. It was probably in the next year that he was
elected fifth Provincial of England after the death of William of
Nottingham[839]: he was succeeded by John of Stamford about 1256 or
1257[840]. He was an intimate friend of Robert Grostete, ‘from whom he
often heard many secrets of wisdom.’[841] Eccleston says of him:
‘Friar Peter of Tewkesbury, minister of Germany, with God’s grace
defended the state of the Order against the King, legate, and many
false brethren, to such an extent that the fame of the fact spread to
many provinces, and his zeal of truth was invincibly proved[842].’
He was buried at Bedford[843].
=John of Stamford=, custodian of Oxford[844], was a man of great
importance among the friars. He was at the council of Lyons in 1245 as
_socius_ of Adam Marsh[845]. The Pope had some thoughts of sending him
with others on an embassy to the Chorasmeni, Tartars, and Saracens, who
had attacked the Holy Land, but the plan was not carried out[846]. On his
return, he was taken ill at Beaune, and was tended by Adam Marsh[847].
John of Stamford was one of the three friars to whom the general entrusted
the confirmation of the election of William of Nottingham’s successor in
the office of Provincial Minister (1251)[848]. Some time after 1245 he
became custodian of Oxford; he held the office in 1253 when Thomas of York
incepted[849]. He joined about this time with Adam Marsh and Thomas of
York in a petition to the Provincial, begging for mercy for Hugh Cote,
probably a lay brother, who had stolen three horses of great value, and
then repented[850]. He succeeded Peter of Tewkesbury as provincial
minister about 1256[851]. His friendship with Adam Marsh lasted to the end
of the latter’s life[852]: feeling that his last days were approaching,
Adam begged Bonaventura, then General, to send to him John of Stamford,
the English Provincial, who was at this time (1257), apparently
abroad[853]. As Provincial he procured an endowment (20_s._ per annum) for
St. Owen’s Church in London, the parish in which the Minorites then had
their house[854]. He is said to have died in 1264, but there is no good
authority for the statement[855]. He was buried at Lynn, with which place
he seems to have had some previous connexion: Brewer calls him warden of
Lynn[856].
=Martin= is mentioned in two letters from Adam Marsh to ‘W., Minister of
England’ as warden of Oxford; but the superscription is untrustworthy and
the date of the letters uncertain[857]. This Martin may have been
identical with the ‘Frater Martinus senex’ (mentioned by Eccleston), who
established the convent at Shrewsbury, and delighted in the recollection
of the hardships and poverty which he had then experienced[858]. A Martin
de Barton, who was also known to Eccleston, and had often seen St.
Francis, came to England in the early years of the Order, and was
afterwards vicar of the English Provincial and filled many other
offices[859]. When custodian of York, Martin de Barton enforced the
strictest poverty, only allowing so many friars to live in any place, as
could be supported by mendicancy alone without incurring debts[860].
=Adam of Warminster= was warden in 1269; he took part in a controversy
with the Dominicans at Oxford in that year, defending his Order against
the charge of being ‘receivers of money[861].’
=John de Codyngton= was warden in 1300, when he received license from the
Bishop to hear confessions in the Archdeaconry of Oxford[862].
=John de Okehampton= was warden in 1340; all that is known of him will be
found in the Appendix B.
=Richard Clyff= was custodian in 1465 and 1466. In the latter year he sued
John Broghton, sheriff of Kent for a royal debt. He was sometime
vice-warden of London and was buried in the church of the Minorites
there[863].
=Richard Salford= was warden in 1488 and 1489; he recovered debts from Sir
John Paston, sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sir Edmund Bedyngfeld,
sheriff of the same counties; the records of these suits contain the only
notices of him now remaining[864].
=William Vavasor= was studying at Oxford and transcribing philosophical
treatises in 1490 and 1491[865]. He incepted as D.D. in 1500, and was
warden of the convent about the same time[866]. In Thomas Cromwell’s list
of learned persons not living in Oxford (A. D. 1531) is the name of ‘Dr.
Vavysor, Grey Friar at...’[867]. At the dissolution he was warden of the
Grey Friars at York[868], and was one of the few Mendicants who received a
pension; the amount was £5 a year[869].
=Robert Burton= was warden on April 12, 1508, when he applied to the
Chancellor’s Court to recover a debt.
‘Eodem die dedimus terminum domino Joanni Gardener principali aule
bovine ad satisfaciendum fratri Roberto Burton gardiano fratrum
Minorum xxv{s} viii{d} sibi debitos in fine quatuor septimarum,’
&c.[870]
As B.D. he supplicated for D.D. on March 8th, 1507/8 after studying for
twenty years at Oxford and Cambridge, preaching two University sermons at
Oxford, and six at Paul’s Cross, &c.; the grace was conceded on condition
that he should respond once more[871]. Afterwards he became regent of the
Franciscan Schools in London. The register of the Grey Friars, London,
notes among those buried in the chapel of All Saints in the Franciscan
church,
frater Robertus Burton sacre theologie prof(essor quondam) Regens
loci, qui obiit 8{o} die mensis Januarii A. D. 1522[872].
=Walter Goodfield= was warden shortly before 1513; as warden he leased one
of the friary gardens to Ric. Leke, brewer[873]. From the University
Register[874], it appears that on Nov. 27, 1506, he supplicated to be
admitted to opponency and to read the sentences, after studying twelve
years in logic, philosophy, and theology; on May 10, 1507, in making the
same supplication, he stated that he had studied the same subjects
fourteen years. He was admitted to oppose on Dec. 10, 1507. On June 3,
1508, he supplicated as B.D. for D.D.
‘This grace was granted on condition that he has studied twelve years
in logic, philosophy, and theology, and that he proceed before Easter,
and that he preach once ‘_preter formam_,’ after taking his degree,
and read one book of the sentences publicly and gratis.’
On March 19, 1509/10, he was allowed to count a sermon to be preached on
Ash Wednesday as his examinatory sermon. On May 12, 1510, he was licensed
in theology. On June 27, 1510, he was dispensed ‘_pro suis lecturis
minutis_.’ On July 1, he was admitted D.D.; on Oct. 28, 1510, he was with
three others appointed a judge to examine a sentence passed on Thomas
Foster by the commissary[875]; and on Dec. 10, he was dispensed from his
necessary regency, possibly owing to his duties as warden. He seems to
have become warden of the London convent after this[876]. He died on the
6th of May, 1521, and was buried in the chapel of All Saints, in the Grey
Friars Church, London[877].
=John Harvey= succeeded Goodfield as warden; he held the office in Feb.
1513/4[878], Feb. 1514/5[879], and probably for many years afterwards. He
had ceased to be warden in 1529, when he was required by the vice-warden
or sub-warden John Bacheler, in the name of the then warden, to answer
certain charges made against him respecting his administration[880]. The
following details are known about his scholastic career; he was admitted
to oppose in theology Dec. 6, 1514, and admitted B.D. on Jan. 20, 1514/5;
he was still B.D. in 1529; one of the same name took the degree of B. Can.
L. on April 3, 1530, but he is not described as a friar[881].
=Edward Baskerfild= was probably the immediate successor of John Harvey.
In Jan. 1527/8 he held some office, being then ‘in London on the business
of his house’ and likely to stay there some months[882]; he is described
as warden in 1533, as _custos fratrum minorum Universitatis Oxon’_ in
1534[883], and he was warden at the time of the dissolution.
He supplicated for B.D. on April 12, 1526, after
‘studying logic, philosophy, and theology for thirteen years, and
preaching some sermons at Exeter and Oxford,’
was admitted to oppose on June 13, and became B.D. on Feb. 18,
1526/7[884]. He supplicated for D.D. on Dec. 9, 1531, and March 5, 1531/2,
after sixteen years’ study; and became D.D. on July 8, 1532[885]. He had
previously obtained a reduction of his composition on inception first to
five, and then to four marks;
‘Causa est quod est pauperior quam ut possit eam summam pecunie
(quinque marcas) solvere[886].’
In Oct. 1532, he was dispensed from his necessary regency. In 1533 we find
him at Exeter, trying to extract from Thomas Benet a recantation of his
heresies[887].
He acted as deputy of the commisary, or vice-chancellor, in 1534, 1535,
1536, and 1537[888]. In this capacity he sometimes held his court in the
Franciscan convent, as, for instance, when investigating the charges of
immorality against Friar Arthur[889]. His pecuniary position seems to have
improved: he kept a horse in 1534[890], and in 1537, one Robert Symon was
admitted to the privileges of the University as servant of Dr.
Baskerfild[891].
At the dissolution he made his peace with the visitors by causing his
house to surrender at once[892]. Dr. London sent him to Thomas Cromwell
(Aug. 31, 1538), to obtain the ‘capacities’ for the Oxford friars, and
begged Cromwell to allow him to live in Oxford ‘altho he wer benefycyd.’
As
‘visitar of dyvers places wiche they do call custodies,’
he possessed information concerning the friars in London and elsewhere
which might be useful to the King’s agents, and which he was willing to
impart to them. He appears to have accompanied Dr. London on his
visitation after the dissolution of the friars at Oxford, and we find him
on Jan. 3, 1539, receiving in conjunction with the doctor, the surrender
of the Black Friars of Derby[893]. The name is spelt in a variety of ways,
e. g. Baskarwild, Bascafyld, &c.; a fifteenth century MS. in the Bodleian
(Laud. Lat. 114, § 3), containing _Cantica Sacra_, belonged to Edward
Baskervile, D.D.
NOTE. Wood places =Herveius de Saham= among the wardens of the Grey Friars
(A. D. 1285). This is a mistake based on a misunderstanding of the
following passage in Peckham’s Register (p. 895):
‘Et ne pro defectu acquietantiae solutionem dictae pecuniae
retardetis, damus magistro Herveo de Saham, auditori compoti vestri de
bonis dicti defuncti, Oxoniae commoranti et regenti, et gardiano
Fratrum Minorum de eadem, tenore praesentium potestatem ut soluta
dicta pecunia in forma praefata, plenam vobis faciant acquietantiam de
eadem’ (May 6, 1285).
CHAPTER II.
LECTORS OR REGENT MASTERS OF THE FRANCISCANS.
The following sixty-seven names are classed together under a separate
heading simply because they are found in a list in an old manuscript. The
list is evidently intended to include all the Regent Masters of the Friars
Minors at Oxford[894] in chronological order; it seems to break off about
the year 1350. Whether it is complete up to that date may be doubted; but
no contemporary, or nearly contemporary, notice has been found of any
Friar Minor Regent in Theology or D.D. of Oxford before 1351, whose name
does not occur in this list[895].
The list is found in two MSS:--
I. British Museum; Cotton Nero A IX, fol. 77 a-b, in Eccleston’s
Chronicle. Names 1-5 are in the same hand as the rest of the MS.; 6-21 in
a hand rather larger but not perceptibly later. On the reverse of the
leaf, they are continued in a later fourteenth century hand which ends at
the 58th name; then 59-66 have been added not much later (the ink has
faded a good deal in this part); the last name is in a later hand,
probably fifteenth century.
II. Phillipps, MS. 3119, fol. 76 (at Thirlestaine House). Names 1-21 are
in the same hand as the MS., i.e. the text of Eccleston’s Chronicle;
another scribe has added names 22-49 inclusive; then the names are
continued in another hand to Laurence Briton, where the list ends. This
MS. omits Henry Cruche and Walter de Chauton, so that Laurence Briton is
called the 53rd master instead of the 55th.
Lectors.
1. =Adam Marsh= or =de Marisco= was born probably at the end of the 12th
century in the diocese of Bath[896]. He was educated at Oxford, where he
studied under Robert Grostete[897], whose affectionate interest in him
dated from his early years[898]. His brother Robert was made Archdeacon of
Oxford by Grostete in 1248 and other members of the family were in the
bishop’s service[899]. Adam’s uncle, Richard de Marisco, Bishop of Durham,
from 1217 to 1226, gave him a living near Wearmouth, which he held for
three years[900], and bequeathed to him his library in 1226[901]. At this
time Adam was a Master, probably of Arts. Soon afterwards, at the
instigation of his friend and pupil[902] Adam of Oxford, who had recently
become a Minorite, he gave up ‘all worldly greatness and a large
income[903]’ to enter the Franciscan Order at Worcester, ‘through zeal for
greater poverty[904].’ He is said to have been appointed by the General
Chapter _socius_ of St. Anthony of Padua, the first theological student in
the Order. The two then proceeded, according to the same authority, to
study under the Abbat of St. Andrew’s at Vercelli, where they made such
progress in five years that the Abbat confessed that his pupils had become
his teachers[905]. In 1230 St. Anthony and Adam Marsh are said to have
headed the opposition to the relaxations which Elias was attempting to
bring into the Order[906]; but this tradition is probably unfounded;
Eccleston says nothing about it[907]. After his entry into the Order, Adam
probably resided for the most part at Oxford, where Grostete was then
lecturing to the Franciscans. Wood asserts that the latter presided at his
inception and made the customary speech in praise of the inceptor at the
ceremony[908]; but the statement, though probable enough in itself, lacks
authority and seems to have originated from a confusion between Adam and
Robert Marsh[909]: it is not unlikely that Adam received his theological
degree abroad. There is no direct evidence of his having lectured on
theology to the friars at Oxford before 1252[910], but there can be no
doubt that he began to do so not later than 1247 (when Thomas Wallensis
was elected Bishop of St. David’s), and he probably delivered lectures
long before. He was certainly before this time one of the recognised
leaders of the English Franciscans[911]. He was on a commission of three
elected by the English province to report on the Rule when Haymo was
general (1239-1244), and recommended that no change should be made in the
statutes of St. Francis[912]. He wrote a solemn exhortation in the name of
the English Minorites to Boniface of Savoy on his consecration to the
Archbishopric of Canterbury in 1245[913]. William of Nottingham submitted
to him the names of three friars from whom he was to select one to act as
Vicar in the Provincial Minister’s absence (1250?)[914]. In his latter
years he was one of the foremost men in the church. At the instance of the
Archbishop of Canterbury and for his use, he wrote an address to the Pope
on the occasion of Henry III taking the cross (1250)[915]. He addressed a
long letter of advice to St. Sewalus on his appointment to the
Archbishopric of York in 1255[916]. In the same year he was nominated by
Alexander IV to settle a dispute between the Bishop and the Prior and
Convent of Winchester[917]. He was on a Papal commission to try a cause
between the King and the Bishop of St. David’s, and between the same
bishop and the Abbat of Gloucester[918], and on another commission
appointed to examine the claims of Richard de Wiche to canonization[919].
He supported Grostete in his revolt against the scandalous nepotism of
Innocent IV[920]. At Oxford his character, learning, and friendship with
the great, gave him a very important position, and he acted as spokesman
now of the Franciscans, now of the whole University[921]. His fame was
European, and Grostete was afraid that the Parisians would secure him to
supply the place of Alexander of Hales (1245)[922]. Among his
correspondents and friends were many of the leading men of the age, such
as Walter de Cantilupe[923], Richard de Wiche, Walter de Merton, Richard
Earl of Cornwall, John of Parma, and Bonaventura. He assisted the
Archbishop of Canterbury in his visitation, and accompanied Grostete to
the Council of Lyons. At one time he is wanted to attend the Parliament at
London[924], at another he is summoned by the Queen to Reading, to treat
of ‘matters touching the King and his heirs[925].’ He incurred the royal
displeasure by an outspoken sermon at Court (Oct. 1250)[926]; but his
advice was asked and listened to by the King who afterwards called him his
father[927].
‘When the Jews ... had transgressed against the peace of the kingdom,
so that both by the judgment of the King and the princes of the land
they were judged worthy of death, he alone resisted their arguments
and forbade that they should be put to death[928].’
In 1247 he was sent abroad with the Prior of the Dominicans on the King’s
business, and forty marks were granted to buy horses and harness for the
ambassadors[929]. In 1257 he was sent with Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of
Worcester, on a similar mission, his expenses being paid out of the
treasury[930]. He was no less intimate with the Earl of Leicester than
with the Bishop of Lincoln. He lectures Eleanor de Montfort on her duties
as a mother and wife, and on her excess in dress[931]. He speaks equally
plainly to Simon de Montfort.
‘Better is a patient man than a strong man,’ he writes to the
hot-headed earl, ‘and he who can rule his own temper than he who
storms a city[932].’
The friar took a keen interest in his friend’s great deeds, recognised his
noble qualities, and the value of his efforts ‘to purge, illuminate, and
sanctify the church of God,’ and looked to him as the guardian of the
public weal[933]. He encouraged the Earl to go forward in his thankless
task of saving Gascony, and tried to win the King over to his side[934].
‘If,’ he writes to the Earl in 1250[935], ‘you have received the
answers of broken friendship and feigned affection, what else are you
now suffering than what you before expected? The clear circumspection
of your wisdom will remember, in how many conferences, after repeated
and careful examination, we drummed into each other’s ears the
execrable shamelessness of seductive cunning, such as we now see;
although, considering the trustworthiness of courageous fidelity, your
wisdom did not think proper to decline the danger of a truly grand
exploit, for the imminent suspicion merely of some stupendous
dishonesty.’
With all his other occupations Adam Marsh did not neglect the poor and
oppressed; he begs Grostete to assist two poor scholars relatives of the
bishop; he writes to Thomas de Anesti on behalf of an able and honest
schoolmaster who is in want of the very necessaries of life; a weeping
widow brings her troubles to him, sure of sympathy and help[936]. His
health gave way under the strain of his manifold duties and the severe
discipline of his Order: he suffered from weakness of the eyes and other
infirmities[937]. In 1253 he lost his lifelong friend Grostete, who
bequeathed his library to the Oxford Franciscans out of love for Adam
Marsh[938]. In 1256 the King and Archbishop of Canterbury tried to force
him into the bishopric of Ely; his rival Hugh Balsham who had been elected
by the chapter appealed to Rome and obtained a decision in his favour on
Oct. 6, 1257. His candidature, probably none of his own seeking, seems to
have laid the friar open to a charge of worldly ambition, which must have
embittered his last days[939]. Feeling the end approaching, he wrote to
Bonaventura to send the Provincial John of Stamford,
‘by whom, through God’s blessing, I may be directed through things
transitory and my thoughts raised to things eternal[940].’
On Dec. 23, 1257, he was ordered abroad by the King[941]. He probably died
on Nov. 18[942], 1258, and was buried next to Grostete at Lincoln[943].
Besides the treatise mentioned below, none of his works remain[944] except
the letters, which, stilted and obscure in style, do not justify the title
of _Doctor illustris_, with which subsequent generations honoured
him[945]. His reputation as a philosopher and theologian must rest on the
evidence of his contemporaries, and on the greatness of the school which
he did so much to found. Matthew Paris calls him ‘_literatus_[946].’
Grostete found him
‘a true friend and faithful counsellor, respecting truth not
vanity,’--‘a wise man and a prudent, and fervent in zeal for the
salvation of souls[947].’
His most famous pupil Roger Bacon had nothing but praise and admiration
for his master, who like Grostete was ‘perfect in all wisdom[948].’
Extant works:--_Epistolae._
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Cotton Vitell. c. viii. (sec. xiii-xiv).
Bodl.: Digby 104, fol. 90 (sec. xiii), letter 147 only.
Edited by Brewer, Monumenta Franciscana, I (1858).
_Pastorale excerptum_ (perhaps merely an extract from the letters).
MS. Vienna: Bibl. Palat. 4923, fol. 40{b}-42{b} (sec. xv).
2. =Ralph de Colebruge= was the second Franciscan master who lectured at
Oxford. He entered the Order while regent in theology at Paris, where he
won some fame; after finishing his course of lectures, he was appointed by
the General of the Order to rule in theology at Oxford, probably before
1250; he was still a novice when he entered on his duties at Oxford[949].
3. =Eustace de Normaneville=, probably took the Franciscan habit at Oxford
about 1250 or before[950]. His conversion was of peculiar importance to
the Order,
‘because he was noble and rich, and had laudably ruled in arts and
decrees, and had been Chancellor of Oxford[951], and was about to
incept in theology.’
It must have been soon after his entry that the friars at Norwich asked
him to become their lecturer. Adam Marsh was deputed by the Provincial to
make the proposal to him. Eustace refused the honour on the plea of
ill-health and ‘unprepared aptitude of mind[952].’ Eccleston mentions him
as the third who lectured at the Oxford Grey Friars as a master[953]. He
was afterwards sent to Cambridge and was the third regent master of the
Franciscans there[954].
4. =Thomas of York= (1253) is first mentioned in a letter of Adam Marsh
written at Lyons, 1245; the writer sends for various books, among which is
‘the chapter of the First Prophecy (Abbat Joachim?) which the beloved
brother in Christ, Thomas of York had[955].’
Soon afterwards we find him consulting with Adam, Grostete, and the Vicar
of the Provincial Minister, about sending English friars to Denmark[956].
He wrote to Adam about the defeat of St. Louis and the Crusaders in 1250,
and Adam sent the letter on to Grostete[957]. About the same time Adam
remonstrates with him for breaking his promises, especially for omitting
to send him ‘the table of the Trinity’ (? _tabula trinitatis_)[958].
Another letter to him from Adam Marsh refers to the anger of the King
against Simon de Montfort, whose friendship Thomas seems to have enjoyed
and whose party he no doubt supported. Perhaps it was before 1250 that
Adam advised the Provincial Minister to instruct Thomas,
‘that he should apply himself to the study of Holy Scriptures by
attending the lectures of the learned and investigating their
writings,’
with a view to his eventually becoming lecturer to the Grey Friars at
Oxford; failing this, the writer hints that Thomas would probably be
summoned abroad[959]. In the same letter he refers to his ‘youthful age.’
At the beginning of 1253[960] Thomas of York was presented to incept in
theology at Oxford, objections were raised on the ground that he had not
taken a degree in Arts. Eventually he was allowed to incept, but a statute
was passed to regulate the conduct of the University on similar occasions
in the future. The details of the controversy are given elsewhere[961].
The vesperies took place on Thursday, March 13th, and the inception on the
following day, under the presidency of Friar Peter de Manners, apparently
a Dominican; Adam Marsh, who as master of the inceptor would naturally
have presided, left Oxford on March 12th. Thomas of York now became
lecturer to the Oxford Franciscans[962]. He was afterwards sent to
Cambridge and occurs as the sixth in the list of ‘Masters of the Friars
Minors’ there[963]. Adam Marsh writes to him in the most affectionate
terms and speaks highly of his learning, and the brightness of his
intellect[964]; he describes him to Grostete as an earnest, discreet, and
benevolent man, filled with a heavenly zeal for the salvation of
souls[965]. According to the _Catalogus illustrium Franciscanorum_ he
wrote a commentary on Ecclesiastes[966].
_Frater Thomas de Eboraco super Metaphysicam Aristotelis._
MS. Florence: Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xiv, Sin. Cod.
V.
5. =Richard Rufus of Cornwall=[967] was a Master, probably of Arts, when
he became a Minorite at Paris
‘at the time when Friar Elias threw the whole Order into confusion’
(c. 1238).
He came to England (where he made his profession) while the trial of the
Minister-General was yet pending in the Roman Court[968]. He is mentioned
as speaking at a chapter at Oxford soon after coming to England--probably
either the visitatorial chapter or the chapter held to protest against the
visitor’s conduct in 1238[969]. Soon after 1250 he received a command from
the General to go to Paris as lecturer, but he seems to have obtained
leave to continue his studies at Oxford owing to his weak health[970]. He
probably lectured on the sentences as B.D. about this time. But soon
afterwards, ‘_ob vehementiores perturbationum occasiones_[971],’ in Adam
Marsh’s words, he formed the ‘inexorable resolution’ of going to France in
accordance with the General’s permission: and Adam in the name of the
other friars, requested the Provincial to facilitate his departure by
providing him with suitable companions and the necessary manuscripts[972].
Early in 1253 again, Adam writes to the Provincial:
‘I beg you to look out for some one competent to act as secretary to
Friar Richard of Cornwall[973].’
It may then be inferred that he went to Paris in 1253, where, according to
Eccleston,
‘he gave cursory lectures on the sentences and was judged a great and
admirable philosopher[974].’
After lecturing in Paris, he returned to Oxford, it appears, and became
regent-master of the friars (c. 1255?)[975]. It was here that he developed
the ‘errors,’ the verbal subtleties, which Roger Bacon so unsparingly
denounced. Writing in 1292, Bacon says[976]:
‘Et optime novi auctorem[977] pessimum et stultissimum istorum
errorum[978], qui vocatus est Ricardus Cornubiensis, famosissimus apud
stultam multitudinem, set apud sapientes fuit insanus et reprobatus
Parisius propter errores quos invenerat et promulgaverat, quum
sollempniter legebat sentencias ibidem, postquam[979] legerat[980]
sentencias Oxonie, ab anno Domini 1250{o}. Ab illo M CC L igitur
tempore remansit multitudo in huius magistri erroribus usque nunc,
scilicet per quatraginta annos et amplius, et maxime invalescit Oxonie
sicut ibidem incepit hec demencia infinita.’
Adam Marsh, though in somewhat general terms, gives a far more flattering
account of Richard[981].
Martin de Sancta Cruce, Master of the Hospital of Sherbourne, bequeathed
to him in his will dated November, 1259, _unum habitum integrum_, and a
copy of the Canonical Epistles[982].
Assisi MS. 176 contains a compilation ascribed by a note in a late hand to
‘Master Richard Rufus of England;’ the volume was in the possession of the
friars at Assisi in 1373, consists of 226 leaves, and seems to contain
more than one treatise: it is not rubricated.
_Inc._ ‘Deus autem qui dives est in misericordia propter nimiam caritatem
suam.’
6. =John Wallensis= was B.D. of Oxford before he entered the Order[983].
He must have become D.D. and regent master of the Franciscan schools at
Oxford before 1260[984]. It was probably after this that he went as
lecturer to Paris, where he was honoured with the title of _Arbor
Vitae_[985], and where he was buried[986]. But before his death he was
again in England. In October, 1282, ‘Friar John Wallensis, S.T.D.,’ was
sent by Archbishop Peckham as ambassador to the insurgent Welsh[987]. In
1283 he was one of the five doctors at Paris who were deputed to examine
the doctrines of Peter John Olivi[988]. He enjoyed a great reputation as a
theologian, and the widespread and lasting popularity of his works is
shown by the large number of MSS. and printed editions which have come
down to us. His writings are specially illustrative of the practical side
of the Franciscan teaching.
_Summa de Penitentia._ _Inc._ ‘Quoniam provida solertia est.’
MSS. Brit. Museum: Royal 10 A ix. f. 1-50 b (sec. xiii); 4 D iv. fol.
244 b (sec. xv)[989].
Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine, 569, f. 86 b (sec. xiv).
Falaise:--Bibl. Publ. 38, p. 372 (sec. xiv).
Cf. Worcester Cathed. Libr. MS. 114 (= 789) ‘Jo. Wallensis ordinis
Praedicatorum summa de confessione[990].’
_Breviloquium de quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus,_ or, _de virtutibus
antiquorum principum et philosophorum_: four or five parts:
i. De justitia; ii. De prudentia; iii. De temperantia; iv. De fortitudine;
v. De ordinatione virtutum (this is sometimes included in part iv). _Inc.
prol._ ‘Quoniam misericordia et veritas.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 10 A ix., f. 67 b-99 (sec. xiii); 12 E xxi, §
2, (sec. xv); Burney 360, f. 1 (sec. xv); Harleian 632, f. 25 (sec.
xv).
Oxford:--Bodl.: Bodley 58 (= 2006); Laud, Miscell. 603, fol. 103 (sec.
xiv).--Corp. Chr. Coll. 18[991].--Oriel Coll. 34 (sec. xiv
ineuntis)[992].
Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3706 (sec. xiv), 6346 (xiv), 6776 f. 1-54 (xiv),
imperf. at the beginning.
Toulouse, 340. Cf. MS. St. Omer, 400 (sec. xiv). _Breviloquium de
sapientia ... sanctorum doctorum_, etc.: _inc._ ‘Quoniam unica est
Veritas’ (= ‘quoniam misericordia et veritas?’)
Printed at Venice, 1496; Lyons, 1511 (fol. 200 seq.); Argentina, 1518
(fol. 151 b-164); and _sine anno et loco_ (Louvain 1485?) under the
title _Liber de instructione principum per quatuor partes secundum
quatuor virtutes cardinales_.
_Ordinarium_[993], or, _Alphabetum vitae religiosae_: 3 parts:
i. _Diaetarium_; ii. _Locarium_; iii. _Itinerarium._ _Inc. prol._ ‘Nunquid
nosti ordinem coeli.’ _Inc. pars i._ ‘Quoniam omni negotio.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 632, f. 1 (sec. xv).
Bodleian: Tanner 110, f. 124 (sec. xiv ineuntis); Laud, Miscell. 497
(sec. xv).
Dublin:--Trinity Coll. 138 (= 278).
Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3588 (sec. xiv).
Charleville, 113 (xiv) and 272 (xiv).
Printed at Venice, 1496 (fol. 260); Lyons, 1511 (fol. 217-255);
Argentina, 1518 (fol. 164).
_Summa collectionum_ (or, _collationum_), or, _Communiloquium_, Summa_
collationum ad omne genus hominum_, or, _De vitae regimine_, or,
_Margarita Doctorum_, or, _Communes loci ad omnium generum argumenta_. A
compendium for the use of young preachers, consisting of 7 parts:
i. De constitutione reipublice; ii. De colligatione membrorum reipublice;
iii. De informacione hominum; iv. De republica ecclesiastica; v. De
instructione scolasticorum; vi. De instructione religiosorum; vii. De
informacione hominum ut sint parati ad mortem. _Inc. prol._ ‘Cum doctor
sive predicator evangelicus.’ _Inc. pars i._ ‘Quoniam respublica, ut
dictum est, est universale quoddam corpus.’ _Inc. cap. i._ ‘Sed primo
notandum est quod respublica est res populi.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 632, f. 36 (xv).
Oxford:--Bodley 815 (= 2684), f. 108 (sec. xv).--Balliol Coll. 274 (A.
D. 1409).--Lincoln Coll. 67 (sec. xiv).
Cambridge:--Peterhouse 12 or 2-3-9.--Pembroke 123. Cf. Public Library
Kk II, 11 (sec. xv). ‘Summa compilata a fratre Johanne Walense’--_de
republica_ added in the table of contents.
Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3488 (sec. xiv), 3935, f. 1 (sec. xv).
Evreux 11 (sec. xiv).
Basel, F. III. 16.
Printed at Cologne c. 1467 by U. Zell; Augsburg, 1475; Ulm, 1481;
Venice, 1496 (f. 1-166); Lyons, 1511 (f. 1-139); Paris, 1516.
_Floriloquium philosophorum_, or, _Floriloquium sive compendiloquium de
vita et dictis illustrium philosophorum_, or, _de philosophorum dictis
exemplis et vitis_. 10 parts:
i. On philosophy in general; ii. On the name and profession of
philosophers; iii. On the succession of illustrious philosophers and
their life; iv. On the life and maxims of some less famous philosophers;
v. Of divers philosophic perfections; vi. On the four principal sects of
philosophers--peripatetics, stoics, academicians, and epicureans; vii. On
the seven liberal arts; viii. Poets and authors of apologues; ix. On the
abuses of philosophy; x. On the places where philosophic studies have been
most honoured (e. g. Paris and Oxford mentioned). _Inc. prol. i._ ‘Cum
enim debeamus apes imitari.’ _Inc. prol. operis._ ‘Cum ex vita gentilium.’
_Inc. opus._ ‘Circa primum notandum quod diversimode describitur
philosophia.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 6 B xi. f. 127 (sec. xiv).
Bodl.: Laud. Misc. 603 (xiv).
Cambridge:--Corp. Chr. Coll. 307 (xv).
Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 727, § 5.
Toulouse 340, vi. (xiv).--St. Omer 622 (A. D. 1346).
Printed at Venice, 1496 (f. 167-232); Lyons, 1511 (f. 140-194);
Argentina, 1518 (f. 107-147).
_Breviloquium de sapientia sanctorum._ 8 chapters:
_Inc. prol._ ‘Cum varii sint homines omnes.... Licet in priori
tractatulo[994].’ _Inc. cap. i._ ‘Sapientia enim dicitur ab eo quod est
sapere.’
MSS. Bodl.: Laud. Misc. 603, f. 99 (sec. xiv).
Cambridge:--Corp. Chr. Coll. 307 (xv).
Toulouse 340, vi. (xiv).
St. Omer 622, § 3 (xiv).
Printed at Venice, 1496 (f. 233); Lyons, 1511 (f. 195-200 b);
Argentina (f. 147 b-151 b), and _sine anno et loco_ (Louvain 1485?).
_Summa justitiae_, or, _Tractatus de septem vitiis ex [Gul. Alverno]
Parisiensi_. 10 parts.
i. De peccato in generali; ii. De superbia; iii. De invidia; iv. De ira;
v. De avaricia; vi. De accidia; vii. De gula; viii. De luxuria; ix. De
quinque sensibus corporis; x. De quibusdam peccatis, &c. _Inc. prol._
‘Summa justicie Christi fidelium est declinare a malo et facere bonum.’
_Inc. opus._ ‘Justicia que est via ad regnum ut supradictum est in duobus
consistit.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 632, f. 168.
Cambridge: Peterhouse 89 (= 1751).
Cf. MS. Oxford:--Exeter Coll. 7, § 4 (sec. xv). _Jo. Wallensis Liber
de vitiis ex Parisiensi confectus_: _inc._ ‘Peccatum vitandum est.’
_Tractatus de vitiis et remediis eorum_ (doubtful).
_Inc._ ‘Dicendum est de vitiis seu peccatis primo in generali.’
MS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 4 D iv. f. 226-244 (sec. xv).[995]
Cf. Anonymous _Summa de vitiis et virtutibus_ in MS. Paris:--Bibl.
Mazarine 924 (sec. xiv), which is compiled chiefly from the _Summa_ of
William Péraud.
_Moniloquium vel collectiloquium._ A work in 4 parts for the use of young
preachers:
i. De viciis; ii. De virtutibus oppositis dictis viciis; iii. De penis;
iv. De gloria beatorum.
The object is thus set forth in the prologue:
‘Cum almus Christi confessor beatus Franciscus, a summo magistro Ihu
Christo perfectissime edoctus et suo spiritu plenissime (?)
inspiratus, in sua sacra regula monuerit fratres suos, ut in suis
predicacionibus sint eorum eloquia casta et examinata ad edificacionem
et utilitatem populi, annunciando eis vicia et virtutes, penam et
gloriam, cum brevitate sermonis: ad occasionem dandam minoribus
predicatoribus colliguntur dicta autentica sanctorum de predictis 4
annunciandis.’
_Inc. prol._ ‘Cum almus,’ &c. _Inc. opus._ ‘Cum autem nostra sit intencio
ut dictum est aliqua auctentica in generali colligere.’ _Inc. pars i.,
dist. i., cap. i._ ‘De primo notandum quod describitur vicium sub nomine
mali.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 632, f. 248.
Cambridge:--Peterhouse 87 or 2-0-4, ‘De quatuor predicabilibus ad omne
genus hominum.’--Pembroke Coll. 123.
Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 6776, f. 55-352 (sec. xiv). Imperf. at the
beginning; fol. 58, ’Cum autem sit intentio.’--‘Explicit summa de
viciis et virtutibus compilata a fratre Johanne Galensi ordinis
fratrum minorum. Orate pro eo.’
Falaise:--Bibl. Pub. 38, p. 468.
Munich:--Bibl. Reg. 23595 (sec. xiv), ‘Distinctiones predicabiles
Johannis Gallensis de virtutibus.’
_Legiloquium sive liber de decem preceptis_, or, _De decem mandatis
divinis_, or, _Summa de preceptis_.
_Inc._ ‘Scribam eis multiplices leges.... Omnipotens creator omnium.’
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 632, f. 307 b (sec. xv) imperfect.
Oxford:--Bodl. Rawlinson C. 534, f. 106 (sec. xiii): cf. Bodl. 2501,
‘forte Jo. Wallensis.’--Lincoln Coll. 67, f. 143 (xiv).
Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 569, f. 139 b (xiv).
Bruges 239 (Haenel p. 756).--Falaise 38, p. 325 (xiv.
ineuntis).--Toulouse 340 (xiv).
Extracts printed by Charma, ‘Notice sur un MS ... de Falaise,’ 1851.
_Manipulus Florum_, begun by John Wallensis, finished by Thomas
Hibernicus, to whom it is usually ascribed; excerpts from the fathers, in
alphabetical order.
_Inc. prol._ ‘Abite in agro, &c. Paupercula non habet messem.’
_Inc. opus._ ‘Abstinentia. Bonum est in cibo.’
MSS. Oxford:--Merton Coll. 129 (sec. xiv).--Lincoln Coll. 98 (xiv).
Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 402 (A. D. 1306).
Paris:--Bibl. Mazarine 1032, &c.
Troyes, 1785 (finitus A. D. 1306).--Basel, B iv. 9 (written A. D.
1324).
Printed at Piacenza 1483, Venice 1493, &c.
A similar work, ascribed in the same hand as the text to Friar John
Walensis, is contained in MS. Charleville 136 (sec. xiv); _inc._
‘Accidia. Nota accidiosus est.’
_De origine progressu et fine Mahumeti et quadruplici reprobatione
prophetiae ejus_, cap. xv.
_Inc._ ‘Ad ostendendum quod Mahumetes.’
Printed at Argentina 1550. The editor, G. Fabricius says: ‘hunc
Galensis libellum in dissipatis Bibliothecis inventum collegi.’ No
MSS. of the work have been discovered, and its authenticity seems very
doubtful. It is not mentioned by the earlier bibliographers, such as
Philip de Bergamo and Tritheim. Except in the number of chapters, it
appears to differ entirely from the _Tract. contra falsitates legis
Machometi_ of Peter de Pennis: Quétif-Echard I 569; MS. Chapitre de
Bayeux 42.
_Sermones de tempore et de sanctis._
MSS. Bodl.: 1956 = *NE*. B. i. 14, now Bodley 50; referred to by
Tanner.
Munich:--Bibl. Reg. 26941 (sec. xiv. ineuntis) contains a sermon
preached at Paris by John Wallensis.
Charleville 113 § 3 (sec. xiv and xiii), _Sermones de tempore_: _inc._
‘Dominica prima de adventu’: these are anonymous but follow some works
by J. Wallensis in the MS.
_Postilla super Johannem._
MSS. Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 1533 (sec. xiv).
Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. xxvii. Dext. Cod.
iii. ‘Tabula super Postillam Fratris Joannis de Vallensis (_sic_)
super Joannem.’ The work itself is missing.
This appears to be identical with the _Postilla in Evangelium
Joannis_, printed among Bonaventura’s works. It is doubtful whether
the commentary should be ascribed to either of these writers. (See
Hist. Litt. xxv. 193-4.)
_Collationes in Johannem._ Ascribed also to Bonaventura, and printed among
his works (edit. 1589, tom. ii): probably by the same author as the
preceding _Postilla_.
Cf. MSS. Oxford:--Exeter Coll. 39 (xiv), Thomas Wallensis;--Bruges,
338, ‘Joannes Anglicus super Joannem’ (Haenel); or 474, ‘Scripta
Johannis Anglici super Johannitium’ (Laude).
_Commentaries on Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,
Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah._
MSS. Oxford:--Bodl. Laud. Misc. 345 (sec. xiv), ascribed to John
Wallensis.--Merton Coll. 196 (sec. xiv), and New College 30 (sec. xv),
ascribed to Thomas Wallensis.--Leland mentions the same works in the
library of Christ Church, Canterbury, where they were ascribed to John
Wallensis (Leland _Collect._ III. 7).
The following works are sometimes assigned to John Wallensis:--
_Expositio super Pater Noster._
MSS. Charleville 873 contains, according to Haenel (p. 120), ‘Joannis
Wallensis ... expositio super pater noster et dietarium super vita
religiosa.’ In the new catalogue this treatise is given as anonymous,
the same volume, No. 272 (sec. xiv), containing the _Dietarium_.
Mondée Abbey (diocese Lisieux), Cod. 3, Joannes Galesius Ordinis
Minorum super _Pater noster_ (Montfaucon, p. 1333).
_In fabulas Ovidii_, or, _Expositiones seu moralitates in lib. i._ (?)
_Metamorphoseon sive fabularum_ (Leland and Tanner). This appears to be
the work generally ascribed to Thomas Walleys, and, by M. Hauréau, to
Peter Bercherius[996]. There is no real ground for assigning it, as Leland
does, to John Wallensis.
MSS. Oxford: Bodl. Auct. F. 5. 16 (= Bodl. Sup. A. I Art. 86 or Bodl.
2581), Johannes Anglicus.
Brit. Mus.: Royal 15 C xvi, anon.
Cambridge:--Peterhouse 12 or 2-3-9 ‘a fratre Thoma Waleys de provincia
Anglie ordinis Predicatorum.’
Dublin:--Trin. Coll. 8, anon., but bound up with works by John
Wallensis.
Reims 741 (Haenel p. 405), ‘Liber fabularum a magistro Joanne Anglico
compositus.’
Troyes 1627 (sec. xiv), Thomas Waleys.
Printed at Paris 1511, &c.
_In mythologicon Fulgentii._
A commentary on this by John Wallensis is mentioned by Leland in the
Library of the Friars Minors at Reading (_Collect._ III, 57). Many
anonymous treatises on the work are extant; e. g.
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 7 C I f. 311.--Dublin:--Trin. Coll. 8 (§ 8),
bound up with works of John Wallensis.
Cf. notice of John Redovallensis.
_Comment. in Valerium de non ducenda uxore._
Seen by Leland in the Franciscan Library, London. The _incipit_ which
he gives is merely that of the work itself, and is no assistance in
identifying the commentary of John Wallensis. The latter refers to the
epistle in his _Breviloq. de quatuor virtutibus cardinalibus_: MS.
Brit. Mus.: Royal 10 A ix, f. 83 b-84.
Cf. notice of John Redovallensis.
As to other works attributed to him with some show of reason by the older
bibliographers:
_De cognitione verae vitae_, mentioned by Wadding, is the same as the
_Ordinarium_. An anonymous treatise with this title is in Royal MS. 10
A ix. f. 109-133 (which contains some works by John Wallensis). _Inc._
‘Sapientia Dei que os muti aperuit.’
_De visitatione infirmorum_: Augustine’s treatise on this is in the
Royal MS. above mentioned (fol. 134-145).
_Declaratio regulae S. Francisci_ (printed at Venice, 1513 in
_Firmamentum Trium Ordinum_), is usually attributed to John Peckham.
_Pastoralia_ by J. Wallensis; formerly in Harl. MS. 632, f. 261; (see
old table of Contents); fol. 250-265 (old pagination) are missing.
Boston of Bury calls this _De cura pastorali_: _inc._ ‘Licet beatus.’
Expl. ‘et haec ad David.’
_Collectio epistolarum decretalium Romanorum pontificum_ was by John
Gallensis of Volterra (c. 1200): printed at Ilerda 1576, &c.: MSS.
Nat. Libr. Paris 3925, A; Toulouse 368 (sec. xiii. med.).
_Indices duorum operum_; an alphabetical table of contents in Harl.
MS. 632, f. 133-167.
_Summa confessorum_; by John Lector of Freiburg: see MSS. Troyes, 156
and 1492 (sec. xiv), &c. _Inc._ ‘Quoniam dubiorum[997].’
_De oculo morali_; identical with the work attributed to Grostete and
Peter de Limoges. _Inc._ ‘Si diligenter.’ It may be noticed that
Boston of Bury attributes this to John Wallensis and does not mention
it among Grostete’s works (Tanner, Bibl. pp. xxxiii, xxxvii).
_De correptione sive correctione._ _Inc._: ‘Probata virtus.’ _Expl._
‘Commorabitur’ (Boston of Bury).
_De exortatione._ _Inc._ ‘Qui exortatur’: _Expl._ ‘Moderantis’
(ibid.).
_De disciplina._ _Inc._ ‘Disciplina ad mentem instruendam’
(ibid.)[998].
_In quatuor libros Sententiarum._ _Inc._ ‘Quoniam teste B. Augustino’
(Barth. of Pisa, and Ph. of Bergamo).
_De arte predicandi_, ascribed to John Wallensis in MS. Paris: Bibl.
Mazarine 569, f. 80 b: really by Thomas Walleys.
7. =Thomas Docking=, also called Thomas Good[999], was a native of Norfolk
and probably entered the Order at Norwich. In a letter written A. D.
1252-3[1000], Adam Marsh asks the Provincial Minister to assign the bible
of the late P. of Worcester to ‘friar Thomas de Dokkyng,’ who was
distinguished by good morals and pleasant manners, a clear head, great
learning and ready eloquence; his friends were ready to pay handsomely for
the book. He was evidently a student at this time. He became D.D. and
reader to the Franciscans at Oxford about 1260[1001]. In 1269, when he
took an active part in the controversy with the Oxford Dominicans, he is
described as ‘sometime reader at Oxford[1002].’ According to Blomefield,
he was warden of Norwich and died about 1270[1003]. His theological works,
chiefly biblical commentaries, were long held in high repute[1004]; some
are still preserved.
_Expositio super librum Deuteronomii._
MSS. Brit. Mus.: Royal 3 B xii (sec. xv).
Oxford:--Balliol Coll. 28 (A. D. 1442).
Lincoln:--Cathedral Libr. (Haenel p. 799), ‘Thomas Bockering.’
_Comment. on Isaiah._
MS. Oxford:--Ball. Coll. 29 (sec. xv).
_Expositio super Epistolas S. Pauli._
MSS. Oxford:--Ball. Coll. 30 (sec. xv), containing Galatians,
Ephesians[1005], Hebrews.
Magd. Coll. 154, Galatians, imperf. (sec. xv).
_Lectura super Apocalypsin_, doubtfully ascribed to him.
MS. Oxford:--Ball. Coll. 149 f. 107. _Inc._ ‘Panis ei datus. Querit
propheta.’
_Expositio Decalogi._ _Inc._ ‘Non habebis deos alienos in conspectu meo.
Hoc est in corde.’
MS. Bodl. 2403 (= T. Bodley *NE*. F. 4. 9), now Bodley 453, f.
57-90[1006].
_Questions on St. Luke._
MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nationale, 3183, § 8 (sec. xiv).
_Questio utrum Job in prosperis fuerit altior coram Deo quam in adversis._
MS. Ibid. § 11 (sec. xiv).
_Comment. super Sententias_, mentioned in the Catalogue of Illustrious
Franciscans (Leland)[1007].
8. =H. de Brisingham=[1008] is probably the same as
‘Frater Henricus Lector Oxoniensis Fratrum Minorum,’
who composed a _Summa de Sacramentis_ in 1261[1009]. He afterwards became
thirteenth master of the Friars Minors at Cambridge[1010]. Blomefield
claims him as a Norfolk man, and says that he died about 1280[1011]. He is
perhaps to be identified with ‘_Henricus de Oxonio Chordigerae sectae_’,
whose sermons were seen by Bale in the Franciscan Library at
Reading[1012].
The _De Sacramentis Summa_ is his only extant work.
MS. Bodl. Laud. Misc. 2, f. 130 (sec. xiv. ineuntis).
9. =William of Heddele= (Durham or Northumberland?) is mentioned by Adam
Marsh in a letter to the Provincial, c. 1253, as ‘your desirable son Friar
William de Hedele[1013].’ We know from another source that Heddele was
reader at Oxford in 1269, when he took part in the controversy with the
Friars Preachers[1014]. When Prince Edward went to the Holy Land,
‘he took with him,’ in the words of the so-called Lanercost
Chronicle[1015], ‘the reader and master of the Friars Minors at
Oxford, Friar William de Hedley, a man beloved of God and in favour
with men.’
The chronicler puts these events in the year 1266. Edward took the cross
in 1268 and sailed in 1270. Friar William died on the outward voyage in
the sea of Greece:
‘his corpse,’ continues the same authority ‘being given to the waves
as the custom is, followed the course of the ships for three days,
until, at Edward’s command, it was taken again into the vessel and
afterwards committed to the earth.’
10. =Thomas de Bungay= (Suffolk) has been traditionally associated with
Roger Bacon and regarded as a wizard by later generations. Very little is
known of him. He perhaps entered the Order at Norwich. He lectured as D.D.
in the Franciscan convent at Oxford about 1270; he seems like Roger to
have attached a great importance to mathematics and may have held his
views on the value of natural science and of induction. He lectured
afterwards at Cambridge, being the fifteenth in the list of Franciscan
masters there. He was the eighth English Provincial Minister, and was
succeeded by Peckham, probably in 1275. He was buried at
Northampton[1016].
According to the Catalogue of Illustrious Franciscans he wrote a
Commentary on the _Sentences_[1017]. None of his works are printed; only
one seems to be extant in MS.
_De celo et mundo_: 3 books. _Inc._ ‘Summa cognicionis, &c.
Aristoteles probat his tres questiones in primo capitulo. Prima est
quod omne corpus est completum quo ad divisiones.’ _Expl._ ‘Hic
terminantur questiones super 3 c. et m. a Magistro T. de bungeya.’
MS. Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 509, § 3 (sec. xiv. ineuntis).
Cf. MS. Bibl. Nat. Paris 16144 (sec. xiii), ‘Thomas super librum de
celo et mundo’ (Aquinas?).
11. =John Peckham= was born in Sussex and received his earliest education
in the Priory of Lewes[1018]. He took the Franciscan vows about
1250[1019]; he was then tutor to the nephew of Master H. of Anjou, perhaps
in the University of Paris, but was probably for the time being residing
at Oxford[1020]. On entering the Order he resigned the tutorship. Adam
Marsh calls him ‘_Dominus Johannes de Pescham Scholaris_;’ he may
therefore either have had no degree at this time, or that of bachelor. He
appears to have spent some time at Oxford, as in later years he expresses
his gratitude for the training he received in the Franciscan convent of
that University[1021]. He then returned to France, studied under
Bonaventura, and took the Doctor’s degree at Paris, where he ruled in
theology[1022]. Among his pupils was St. Thomas of Cantilupe, Bishop of
Hereford[1023]. At Paris too he came in contact with Thomas Aquinas and
probably attended his lectures. He was present when the latter submitted
his doctrine about the ‘Unity of form’ to the judgment of the masters in
theology;
‘we alone,’ the Archbishop wrote afterwards, ‘stood by him, defending
him to the best of our power, saving the truth[1024].’
He was at Paris during the troublous times which followed William of St.
Amour’s attack on the Mendicants, and wrote a defence of the latter[1025].
He returned to England probably about 1270 or soon after, and was admitted
at Oxford to the same degree as he held at Paris[1026]. He now became
lecturer to the Franciscans. On May 2, 1275, he was with Friar Oliver de
Encourt Prior of the Dominicans, appointed, by the King’s writ, to decide
a suit in the University which had long been under consideration in the
Chancellor’s court[1027]. It was probably soon after this that he was
elected ninth Provincial Minister and confirmed by Bonaventura[1028]. He
did not hold this office long, being in 1277, summoned by the Pope
(Nicholas III?) to lecture on theology in the schools of the Papal Court
at Rome[1029]. After lecturing here for something less than two years, he
was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Papal bull in January 1279, and
consecrated by the Pope in the following March[1030]. His official
connexion with the Order did not cease; he was deputed by the Pope
‘protector of the privileges of the Order of Minors in England,’
and frequently used his powers for the benefit of the Franciscans[1031].
His relations to the Oxford Franciscans, as well as his condemnation of
erroneous doctrines at the University, have already been noticed. While
enforcing to the uttermost his legal rights, the Archbishop evinced a
special solicitude for the poor, feeding them in time of famine,
remonstrating with covetous abbats and careless landlords[1032]. He
himself is said to have travelled on foot, to have surpassed all in
watchings and fastings and prayer, to have used none but vile garments and
bedding--in fine to have lived as became one who held perfection to
consist in the contempt of riches and the search for truth[1033]. He died
on December 8, 1292, and was buried ‘among the monks’ of Canterbury near
Becket’s tomb[1034]. His heart was buried in the choir behind the High
Altar at the Grey Friars of London[1035]. He named as his executors the
Friars Minors of Paris[1036]. The Dominican Nicholas Trivet sums up his
character in these words[1037]:
‘He was a zealous promoter of the interests of his Order, an excellent
maker of songs, of pompous manner and speech, but of kind and
thoroughly liberal heart.’
A careful and valuable account of his works will be found in Mr. Trice
Martin’s preface to Peckham’s Register, Vol. III[1038].
A few additions may be made to Mr. Martin’s list of his extant writings.
_Constitutiones Ottoboni cum expositione Peccham._
MS. Cambridge:--Pembroke Coll. 145 (= 2073). Cf. Wilkins, _Concilia_,
II, 50-51.
_Quaestiones ordinariae._ _Inc._ ‘Utrum theologia ex duobus.’
MS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 3183 (sec. xiv); containing the questions,
_Utrum theologia sit prae ceteris Scientiis necessaria Praelatis
Ecclesiae_, and, _Utrum theologia ex duobus componi debuerit
Testamentis_. Cf. MSS. ibid. 15805, _Quodlibeta S. Thome, J. de
Pechan, Guil. de Hozon_; and 15986, f. 238 (sec. xiii), _Responsio ad
questionem Joh. de Peschant_.
_Tractatus Fratris Joannis Pecham Ord. Min. contra Fratrem Rogerium (Ord.
Praed.) obloquentem contra suum Ordinem_ (called by Tanner, _Contra
Priorem Cisterciensium_). _Inc._ ‘Super tribus et super quatuor
sceleribus.’
MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. XXXVI. Dext.
Cod. xii. p. 25 (sec. xiv. exeuntis).
_Formula confessionum._ _Inc._ ‘Sicut dicit b. Joannes.’
MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. IV. Sinist.
Cod. xi (A. D. 1433).
_Scriptum super Ethicam._
MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. XII. Sinist.
Cod. xi.
12. =Henry de Apeltre= was the twelfth reader at Oxford, and seventeenth
master of the Friars Minors at Cambridge. Nothing more is known about
him[1039].
13. =Robert Cross= or =Crouche=[1040] (de Cruce) must have lectured at
Oxford about 1280. In April of that year Peckham forbade an Oxford
Dominican to visit a certain ‘college of women’ on account of grave
suspicion, on the accusation of Friar Robert de Cruce[1041]. Leland states
that he was immersed in philosophical studies to an advanced age, and when
at last he betook himself to theology he showed greater skill in
investigating speculative subtleties than in exploring the literal sense;
the statement might be made with equal truth of most of the scholastics.
He became Provincial Minister soon after 1280. The successor of John
Peckham, Hugh of Bath, died within a short time of his appointment, and
was succeeded by Robert Cross as eleventh minister[1042]. He held the
office in June 1284, when he obtained for the English Minorites exemption
from the payment of a custom due to the King from all who passed to or
from the Continent by the port of Dover[1043]. In Sept. of the same year
he held a chapter of the English Franciscans[1044]; and in March 1285, he
represented the English Province at the General Chapter of Milan[1045]. He
may have resigned the dignity at this Chapter; on Oct. 31, 1285, Peckham
addresses a letter to ‘W., Provincial Minister of the Friars Minors’; this
must be William of Gainsborough[1046]. Robert Cross was buried at
Bridgwater[1047]. None of his works remain. Leland mentions his
commentaries on the _Physics_ and the _Sentences_, on the authority of the
Catalogue of Illustrious Franciscans.
14. =R. de Toftis=, called by Wood, Radulphus de Toftis.
15. =Alanus de Rodano.=
16. =Roger de Marston= or =Merscheton=[1048] was D.D. of Oxford and
lecturer to the Franciscans before 1290. Some questions on which he
disputed, perhaps before he became doctor, are preserved in a MS. at
Assisi[1049]. He subsequently lectured at Cambridge as twelfth master of
the friars[1050]. According to Ehrle, Marston’s theological and
philosophical teaching bears strong resemblance in some respects to that
of Peter John Olivi[1051]. He became thirteenth Provincial Minister
perhaps at the great Chapter of Paris in 1292, certainly between 1285
(when W. of Gainsborough was appointed) and 1299 (when Hugh of Hertepol
was Provincial). He is said to have been warden of Norwich and to have
died in 1303[1052]. He was buried at Norwich[1053].
17. =Alan de Wakerfeld=[1054] was at Oxford in 1269, when he represented
his convent on several occasions in the controversy with the Friars
Preachers[1055]. He was not yet lector.
18. =Nicholas de Ocham= occurs in the Assisi MS. as Hotham, Master
Nicolaus de Hotham, and Frater N. de Ocham minor[1056]. He lectured at
Oxford towards the end of the thirteenth century. Except the _quaestiones
disputatae_ at Assisi, it is doubtful whether any of his works are
extant[1057]. Leland says:
Catalogus eruditorum Franciscanorum Nicholai Ochami meminit; cujus et
depraedicat libros; _Commentarios_, videlicet, _in Sententias Petri
Longobardi_, et opus, cui _De Verbo_ titulus. Scripsit libellum _De
latitudine oppositionum_, ingeniosi iudicium astrologi[1058].
Cf. MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 14565 f. 173 b (sec. xiv). ‘Fratris
Nicholai minoris replicationes;’ and Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 319,
‘Nicholai super 2 et 3 sententiarum, in 3 libris.’
Another Friar Nicholas Minorite, (called by Sbaralea[1059],
‘Specialis’), flourished about the same time as, or soon after, N. of
Ocham, and wrote a chronicle on the Franciscan contest with the Pope,
A. D. 1321-1328 (MS. Bibl. Nat. Paris, 5154: Extracts in Böhmer’s
_Fontes Rer. German._ IV, 588 seq.)
19. =Walter de Knolle= was afterwards twenty-third master at
Cambridge[1060].
20. =Hugh de Hertepol= or =Hartlepool= was a friar and a man of importance
in Oxford in 1282, when Devorguila appointed him to be one of the two
proctors to whom the government of the new college of Balliol was
entrusted; the statutes of 1282 are addressed to ‘Friar Hugh de Hertilpoll
and Master William de Menyl[1061].’ It was probably some years later that
Hugh became S.T.P. and lecturer to the Franciscan convent. His
disputations seem to have been considered valuable and several of them are
preserved[1062]. He disputed
‘in the vesperies before the inception of Friar John de Persole (i.e.
Persora, his successor) at Oxford[1063].’
He became fourteenth Provincial Minister, in succession to Roger Marston.
The date of his appointment or election is uncertain. In April 1299[1064],
we hear of him going as Provincial, with Friar W. of Gainsborough as his
_socius_, to the General Chapter at Lyons; on this occasion the King gave
to the two friars 10 marks. In 1300 (Aug. 7) at Dorchester (Oxon), he
chose twenty-two friars of the Oxford convent and presented them to
Dalderby, Bishop of Lincoln[1065], with the request that he would license
them to hear confessions. The bishop asked ‘whether he was presenting them
for all the convents in the diocese of Lincoln,’ and, finding that it was
only for the Oxford convent, refused to license more than four. At length
a compromise was effected, and eight of the friars were licensed to hear
confessions in the archdeaconry of Oxford. In 1301[1066], Hugh was again
abroad, probably at the General Chapter at Genoa. In Sept. 1302, he was,
with W. of Gainsborough and others, sent as ambassador to the Court of
Rome to negotiate for peace with the King of France[1067]. While in Italy
on this mission, he attended the General Chapter at Assisi[1068]; he
probably did not return to England, as we are told that he was ‘buried
among the friars at Assisi[1069].’
21. =John de Persora= or =Pershore= (c. 1390) called in the Assisi MS.
John de Persole (see above, under Hertepol).
22. =John of Berwick= lectured at Oxford before the end of the thirteenth
century. He was buried at Stamford. Bale identifies him with a Brenlanlius
who is referred to by John Pico de Mirandola in his treatise _contra
Astrologos_.
_Joannis Anglici Ordinis Minorum Summa Astrologiae Judicialis, quae
anglicana vulgo nuncupatur_ (doubtful).
MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, in Plut. XXIX (Montfaucon, p. 237, 299).
Printed at Venice 1489, under the name of Joannes Eschvid (_i.e._
Eshendon or Ashendon; see MS. Bodl. 3467, p. 91).
_Questiones Joannis de Beroyko de Ordine Fratrum Minorum de Formis._
MS. Venice:--Bibl. S. Anton. (Tomasin, p. 9).
Leland adds: ‘Collaudat eruditorum Index Franciscanorum ejus _In
longobardum elucubrationes_[1070].’
23. =Thomas of Barneby=, wrongly called by Brewer ‘Johannes de Barneby,’
is identified by Wood, without much probability, with the first Senior
Dean of Merton College, who was appointed by Kilwardby in 1276[1071]. He
is mentioned in a record dated March 20, 1326, as ‘master of the Friars
Minors[1072].’
24. =Adam of Lincoln=, D.D. and regent master of the Franciscans at
Oxford, succeeded Hugh of Hertepol as fifteenth Provincial Minister,
probably in 1304[1073]; he had ceased to hold the office in 1310[1074]. He
was one of the doctors of theology appointed in the Provincial Council of
York in July 1311, to examine the charges of heresy against the Knights
Templars[1075]. He was buried at Lincoln. The Register of the Friars
Minors of London adds: _qui fecit mirabilia_; probably some word like
_opera_ is to be supplied[1076].
25. =William of Gainsborough=[1077] must have been Provincial Minister
before he lectured at Oxford[1078]. He was Provincial in Oct. 1285, being
the twelfth in order[1079]. He was doctor of theology in 1294, when he
was sent with Friar Hugh of Manchester, a Dominican, to the King of
France, to protest against the latter’s seizure of Gascony and to renounce
homage in the name of the English King[1080]. In 1299 he accompanied the
Provincial, Hugh of Hertepol, to the General Chapter at Lyons[1081]. Early
in 1300 he was called by Boniface VIII to lecture on theology in the Roman
Curia[1082]; the King paid his expenses.
Fratri Willmo de Geynesburgh de ordine Minorum eunti ad curiam Romanam
ad mandatum Pape ad legendum de Theologia in palatio ejusdem Pape, de
dono Regis ad quatuor equos sibi emendos pro equitatura sua et socii
sui et pro hernes’ eorundem portand’ versus eandem curiam, 50 marc’.
Eidem de dono Regis ad expensas suas morando in eadem curia pro
negotio predicto 50 marc’, per manus Domini J. de Droken’ liberantis
eidem denar’ apud London’ mense Maii. Eidem de dono Regis nomine
expensarum suarum eundo de Wysebech usque London’ pro dictis denariis
ibidem recipiendis mense predicto 26_s._ 8_d._ Summa 68 li[1083].
During the two years that he remained at Rome[1084], his energies were not
entirely confined to his work as lecturer. Boniface was at this time
endeavouring to bring the war between France and England to a close by
arbitration. In Sept. 1300, Friar William of Gainsborough was appointed by
Edward I to act as one of his ‘proctors and special messengers’ at Rome in
this matter[1085]; and in Sept. 1302, he was employed with Hugh of
Hertepol and others in the same capacity[1086]. On Oct. 24, 1302, the
Pope, passing over the candidate of the Chapter, nominated William, Bishop
of Worcester; the consecration took place on Nov. 25, the enthronement on
June 9, 1303[1087]. As a protest against the Papal interference, the King
imposed a fine of 1000 marks on the new bishop[1088], but granted him £100
for the expenses for his inthronization in consideration of his great
need[1089]. William still continued to be employed in affairs of
state[1090]. In March 1307, at Carlisle, he demanded and obtained from the
Papal nuncio the excommunication of the murderers of John Comyn[1091]. On
March 22, he was appointed to accompany Prince Edward on his journey to
France to claim the hand of Isabella[1092]. Later in the same year he was
sent on an embassy to Rome in connexion with the same affair[1093]. On his
return journey[1094] he died at Beauvais (Sept. 17); as nearly all his
attendants died at the same time, it was believed that the calamity was
due to poison[1095]. The bishop was buried among the Friars Minors at
Beauvais[1096].
26. =John Basset.=
One of this name is said to have written _Chronica_ in English; he was
probably much later than this friar. Tanner, _Bibl._ 79.
27. =Thomas Rondel= or =Rundel=[1097] was lecturer at Oxford in the last
years of the thirteenth century, having previously read the sentences at
Paris[1098]. In 1309 he was one of the commissioners or inquisitors
appointed to hear the accusations against the Knights Templars; he is then
described as master of theology, and probably resided in the convent at
London[1099], where he was buried[1100].
28. =Adam of Howden= or =Hoveden= or =Houdene=[1101] was D.D. and probably
regent master of the Franciscans at Oxford in 1300. He was one of the
twenty-two friars presented by Hugh of Hertepol on July 26 of this year,
to receive the bishop’s license to hear confessions at Oxford, and was one
of the eight actually licensed[1102]. He afterwards read at Cambridge as
the twenty-ninth master of the Friars Minors[1103]. An ‘Adam de Houdene’
was chamberlain to W. of Gainsborough, Bishop of Worcester (1302-7), but
he was not a friar.[1104]
A sermon of his preached on the feast of Epiphany is in MS. Oxford,
New Coll. 92, f. 82 b[1105].
29. =Philip of Briddilton= or =Bridlington= was contemporary with Adam of
Hoveden, and like him was licensed as D.D. by the Bishop of Lincoln to
hear confessions in 1300[1106]. He responded in the schools to Master
Richard de Heddrington or Herington on the question ‘_an omnes beati
equaliter participant beatitudine_[1107],’ a problem which agitated
western Christendom in the early fourteenth century.
30. =Peter de Baldeswell=[1108] was at Oxford in 1300, when he was
presented by the Provincial to the Bishop of Lincoln, but not licensed to
hear confessions[1109]. He was not then D.D.
31. =John de Horley=, co. Oxon or Surrey (the same applies to him as to P.
of Baldeswell).
32. =Martin of Alnwick= was a member of the Oxford convent in 1300; he was
among the twenty-two friars for whom Hugh of Hertepol sought to obtain
license to hear confessions, and was one of those rejected. He was not a
D.D. at this time[1110]. He took his degree and lectured at Oxford between
1300 and 1311. In the latter year he was summoned to Avignon to take part
in the controversy between the Conventual and Spiritual Franciscans, as
one of the four advisers of the General Minister. The matter was tried by
a commission of cardinals and theologians; Martin and his fellows pleaded
the cause of the Conventuals, or Community of the Order. The case was
adjourned to the Council of Vienne and decided by the bull _Exivi de
Paradiso_ (which was published in the last session of the Council, May 6,
1313) in favour of the better section of the Conventuals[1111]. Martin of
Alnwick was evidently one of the leading Franciscans of the time.
According to Bale he died 1336 and was buried at Newcastle[1112].
A universal chronicle, ‘_Flores temporum seu chronicon universale ab
urbe condita ad annum 1349_,’ is sometimes attributed to him; Leland,
e.g. says: ‘Catalogus quoque Franciscanorum scriptorum Chronicorum
Alaunovicani meminit’ (Tanner, Bibl. 515). See also MS. Arundel 371
(sec. xv). This is the chronicle of Hermann Gigas based on the
well-known chronicle of Martinus Polonus (printed 1750). In the
preface Hermann says that he has followed, ‘inter modernos, Martinum
Romane sedis penitenciarium (?) de ordine fratrum predicatorum’ (Ar.
MS. 371, f. 2).
Several philosophical treatises by _Martinus Anglicus_ are extant in
MS. Vienna:--Bibl. Palat. 4698 (sec. xiv).
33. =Robert of Beverley.=
34. =Richard de Coniton= or =Conyngton= (co. Cambridge or Huntingdon) was
at Oxford in 1300 and was one of the friars to whom the Bishop of Lincoln
refused the right to hear confessions[1113]. He became D.D. and lecturer
to the Franciscans between 1300 and 1310. He was afterwards thirty-first
master of the Minorites at Cambridge[1114]. He was sixteenth Provincial of
England, and held the office in 1310[1115]. About this time the Order was
disturbed by the violent antagonism of the two parties within it--the
‘Community,’ the lax or moderate party which comprised the majority and
included the official heads of the Order, and the strict or ‘Spiritual’
party. A papal investigation into the causes of dispute and into the
observance of Rule by the Order was instituted, and the leaders of each
party summoned to the Curia. Richard Conyngton as Provincial was the
official representative of the English Franciscans at Avignon and Vienne
(1301-1313)[1116]. He was buried at Cambridge[1117].
He is said by Leland and Bale to have written a treatise _De Christi
Dominio_ against Ockham in defence of the papal authority[1118].
Wadding states that he had seen Richard’s _Commentary on the Sentences_ in
the Vatican[1119]. Bale mentions his exposition on the seven penitential
psalms, _ex monasterio Nordovicensi_[1120].
_Tractatus Magistri Richardi Conygton Ministri Angliae de paupertate
contra opiniones Fratris Petri Joannis (Olivi)._ _Inc._ ‘Beatus qui
intelligit super egenum et pauperem. Ps. Praecedit actus meritorius.’
MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. XXXVI, Dext.
Cod. xii (sec. xiv _exeuntis_).
35. =Thomas of Pontefract= was at Oxford in 1300; when the bishop of
Lincoln refused to grant him license to hear confessions. He became D.D.
and lecturer in theology some years after this. In July 1311 he was one of
the inquisitors appointed to extort confession of heresy from twenty-four
Templars in the Province of York[1121].
36. =Peter de Sutton=; ‘jacet Stanfordiae,’ i.e. Stamford, co.
Lincoln[1122].
37. =Ralph of Lockysley=[1123] or =Lockeleye=[1124] was regent master at
Oxford about 1310. He was buried at Worcester[1125]. According to Bale (I,
366) he wrote _De paupertate evangelica_, &c.
38. =William of Schyrbourne= (1312) was at Oxford in 1300; he was one of
the friars presented by the Provincial for license to hear confessions,
and rejected by the bishop of Lincoln[1126]. He was master of the Friars
Minors in 1312, and in this capacity gave some support to the Dominicans
in their controversy with the University[1127].
Leland says: ‘Ejus extant _Quodlibeta Theologica_, lib. i.’ (?)[1128].
39. =William of Nottingham= is confounded with the fourth Provincial
Minister by Wadding, Bale, Pits, and the Register of Friars Minors of
London[1129]. In a work attributed to him, but really composed by his
namesake, occurs the following note, in a hand of the fifteenth
century[1130]--
‘This Notyngham was secular canon and precentor of the Church of York’
(and in another hand), ‘afterwards he became a friar of the order of
St. Francis.’
In the absence of any confirmatory evidence, no weight can be attached to
this statement. No William of Nottingham occurs in Le Neve’s _Fasti_. At
the beginning of the fifteenth century a John of Nottingham held two
prebends and was treasurer of York: and he may be the person referred to
in the first part of the note; it is worthy of remark that the MS.
originally came from York. William of Nottingham must have been reader to
the Franciscans soon after 1312. While regent in theology at Oxford he was
largely occupied in transcribing MSS., especially the works of Nicholas de
Gorham, the expenses being defrayed by his brother _Dominus_ Hugh of
Nottingham[1131]. He succeeded Richard Conyngton as seventeenth Provincial
Minister[1132]. In 1322 he was at the General Chapter of Perugia, and,
with the other ministers, signed the famous letter in which the
Franciscans declared that the doctrine _De paupertate Christi_ was not
heretical but sane and catholic; this was the beginning of the revolt of
the whole Order (as distinguished from the Spirituals) against John
XXII[1133]. According to Bale he died Oct. 5, 1336[1134]. He was buried at
Leicester[1135].
Bale ascribes to him _Determinatio pro lege Christianorum_, lib. i. _Inc._
‘Numquid deus posset revelare aliquam legem.’
‘Ex Redingensi Minoritarum cenobio.’ (MS. Seld. sup. 64, f. 215.)
40. =John de Wylton= lectured at Oxford in 1314: in February of that year
he appears, as representative of the Minorites, in a list of twelve regent
masters in theology (i.e. the theological faculty for the time being), who
condemned as heretical eight articles, chiefly concerning the nature of
the Trinity, in the convent of the Austin Friars[1136]. Wood[1137],
Bale[1138], and Tanner[1139], call him an Austin Friar. Bale states that
he studied and lectured as master at Paris, and says that John
Baconthorpe, in his commentaries on Books I and II of the Sentences,
speaks of him with high praise[1140]. His works seem to have
perished[1141].
41. =John de Crombe= (Cott. MS.) or =Crombre= (Phil. MS.) was perhaps a
native of Combs in Suffolk: he was buried at Oxford[1142].
_Compendium theologicae veritatis per fratrem Johannem de Combis_, lib.
vii. _Inc._ ‘Veritatis theologie cum superni.’
MS. Cambridge:--Caius Coll. 193.
Anonymous in MSS. Charleville 19 (written A. D. 1337), and Metz 448
(sec. xv): generally ascribed to Albertus Magnus and printed at the
end of tom. xiii. of his works, Lyons 1651.
42. =William of Alnwick= is possibly identical with the friar called Roger
of Alnwick in the list of Oxford Franciscans presented to the bishop of
Lincoln in 1300[1143]. After lecturing at Oxford (c. 1315-1320?), he was
sent to the University of Naples, as Doctor of Theology[1144]. He was
present at the General Chapter of Perugia in 1322, and joined with the
other leading men in the Order in declaring that the doctrine of
Evangelical Poverty was not heretical[1145]. In 1330 he was made bishop of
Giuvenazzo near Bari[1146]. He is said to have died at Avignon in
1332[1147]. Bartholomew of Pisa mentions him among the famous Franciscan
theologians of the English nation[1148]; William Woodford places him among
‘inceptores ordinis Minorum qui egregie scripserunt super
sententias[1149].’
_Questiones Almoich super primum Sententiarum._
_Questiones Almoich in 1 et 2 Sententiarum_[1150].
MSS. Padua:--Bibl. S. Anton. (Tomasin, p. 61 b, 62 b.)
Cf. MS. Ball. Coll. 208 (sec. xiv), an abridgment of the commentary of
Duns Scotus on the 2nd book of the Sentences by ‘Master William of
Alnwick, Friar Minor.’
43. =William Herberd= or =Herbert=, if we may credit the Lanercost
Chronicle, which is usually trustworthy at this period, was at Paris in
1290[1151]. From his place in the list of masters, it might be inferred
that he lectured at Oxford about 1315-1320. But if the following works
ascribed to him are genuine, he must have flourished not much later than
1250-60. They are preserved in a fourteenth-century MS. formerly in the
library of Henry Farmer of Tusmor, Oxon, now in the Phillipps Library at
Thirlestaine House[1152].
Sermo Fratris Willielmi Herebert in Ecclesia B. Mariae Virginis Oxon;
in haec verba: ‘Dixit mater Ihu ad eum, Vinum non habent.’
Sermo ejusdem Fratris in Ecclesia B. Mariae Oxon. in translatione S.
Edmundi Archiepiscopi in haec verba: ‘Homo quidam erat dives et
induebatur purpura,’ etc.
(St. Edmund was translated in 1247; the words however must mean _in
festo translationis_, i.e. June 9th.)
Ejusdem Fratris Epistolae summo Pontifici, Episcopo Coventrensi et
Lichfeldensi (Roger of Wesham?), Symoni de Montfort, etc.[1153]
Historica quaedam de Papis Romanis (_anon._).
Tractatus de Veneno et Antidotis (_anon._).
Hymns in old English[1154], quibus haec notula adjicitur: ‘Istos
Hympnos et Antiphonas transtulit in Anglicum non semper de verbo in
verbum, sed frequenter sensum aut non multum declinando, et in manu
sua scripsit frater Willielmus Herebert; qui usum horum autem
habuerit, oret pro anima dicti Patris.’
William Herbert was buried at Hereford, which was probably his native
convent[1155].
44. =Thomas of St. Dunstan= (Kent?).
45. =John of Reading= (de Radingia) was buried at Avignon. He had probably
gone to the papal curia in connexion with the revolt of Michael de Cesena
and William of Ockham[1156].
Cf. MS. Florence:--Laurentiana, _ex Bibl. S. Crucis_, Plut. XXXV,
Dext. Cod. xi, _Primus Fratris Joannis de Padingia (= Radingia?),
S.T.D. ord. Min. (super sententias?)_.
46. =John of Thornton=; the name is uncertain; it may be Jornton; the
Phillipps MS. reads Zortone.
47. =Richard of Drayton=, was buried at Shrewsbury[1157].
48. =Robert of Leicester= seems to have been a protégé of Richard
Swinfeld, bishop of Hereford, to whom he dedicated his first extant work
in 1294[1158]. He was S.T.P. and in residence at Oxford in 1325, and
probably lecturer to the friars about the same time. In this year he was
associated with Nicholas de Tyngewick, M.D. and S.T.B. as ‘_Magister
Extraneus_’ of Balliol College[1159]. The two were called upon to decide
whether the statutes of the College allowed the members to attend lectures
in any faculty except that of Arts, and ordained ‘in the presence of the
whole community’ that this was not permissible. Among those present in
the Hall of Balliol when the decision was proclaimed was Richard
Fitzralph, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, the great opponent of the
Mendicant Orders[1160]. Bale and Pits say that Robert died at Lichfield in
1348; ‘but,’ adds Wood, ‘I suppose ’twas sooner.’
_De compoto Hebreorum aptato ad Kalendarium_, four parts with prologue;
composed A. D. 1294. _Inc. prol._ ‘Operis injuncti novitatem, pater
meritis insignissime, magister et domine R. Dei gratia Herfordensis
antistes ecclesie.’
_Compotus Hebreorum purus._ _Inc._ ‘Prima earum est a creacione mundi.’
_Commentariolus supra tabulas in tractatu primo supra recensito
descriptas_ (or, _De ratione temporum_), written in 1295. _Inc._ ‘Ad
planiorem et pleniorem prescripti tractatus intelligenciam.’
These three works are contained in MS. Bodl. Digby 212 (sec. xiv).
_Distinctiones._
MS. Cambridge:--Pembroke Coll. 220, § 1; ‘Enchiridion poenitentiale
... ex distinctionibus ... Rob. de Leycester (aliorumque).’
_De paupertate Christi._
Attributed to him by Leland[1161].
49. =Walter de Foxisley=, or =Ffoxle= in Phillipps MS. (Norfolk or
Wilts?).
50. =Henry Cruche.= A sermon by ‘H. de Cruce, Minor,’ is in Merton Coll.
MS. No. 248, f. 170. This name is omitted in the list given in the
Phillipps MS.
51. =John de Ratforde= (cf. 63rd master).
See MS. Bodl. Digby 216, f. 40, containing three theological questions
to which the name ‘Ratforde’ is prefixed; the MS. dates from the
fourteenth century: the questions are: ‘_an quilibet adultus teneatur
laudare Deum; utrum ex sui meriti vel demeriti circumstantiis juste
debeat augeri vel minui pena; utrum ad omnem actum creature rationalis
concurrat necessario Dei efficientia specialis._’
52. =John de Preston=[1162].
53. =Walter de Chauton=[1163] is no doubt identical with =Walter de
Chatton=, who with the warden was summoned to appear in the Mayor’s Court,
to answer a charge, brought against the convent, of wrongfully keeping two
books, in 1330[1164]; he evidently held some official position at this
time, presumably that of regent master. He is said to have been warden of
Norwich, probably his native convent, and to have taught theology
there[1165]. He was one of the D.D.’s whom Benedict XII consulted in
drawing up his Statutes for the Franciscan Order in 1336[1166]. This fact
lends some support to Bale’s statement that he became papal penitentiary
and died at Avignon in 1343[1167]. Bartholomew of Pisa mentions him among
the famous writers of the Order; William of Woodford among those who
entered the Order in their youth, and ‘wrote many works of great
wisdom[1168].’
_Cathon sur les Sentences_ [W. Chatton[1169] or R. Cowton?].
MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 15886, 15887 (sec. xiv), two copies.
_Questio fratris Galtheri magistri ... de schaton, que est secunda in
ordine primi sui in prologo._ _Inc._ ‘Utrum Deus possit creare.’ _Expl._
‘Et ideo non est simile.’
MS. Cambridge:--Public Library, Ff. III, 26, f. 122, 123, 130 b.
Cf. MS. Harl. 3243, fol. 55, _Adam Wodham de divisione, etc. contra
Chatton_.
54. =John de Ridevaus=, =Rideval=, or =Redovallensis=, sometimes called
John de Musca, according to Bale[1170], flourished about 1330. Of the
works attributed to him, the Commentary on Fulgentius seems to be the same
as that attributed to John Wallensis; similarly perhaps with the
commentary on the letter of Valerius to Rufinus; the moral exposition of
the Metamorphoses seems to differ from that ascribed to Thomas Walleys and
Peter Bercherius.
_Lectura super Apocalypsi._
MS. Venice:--St. Mark, Class. I, Cod. 139, fol. 110-119 (sec. xiv),
‘Extracta de lectura fratris Joannis Rydelbast super Apocalypsi,
ordinis Minorum.’
‘_Commentarius super Fulgencium continens picturas virtutum et viciorum
sub ymaginibus deorum et dearum quos colebat vana superstitio paganorum
editus a fratre J. de Ridevall de ordine fratrum minorum._’ _Inc._
‘Intencio venerabilis viri Fulgencii.’
MSS. Cambridge:--Pub. Libr. Ii II, 20, f. 121-162 (sec. xv); and Mm I,
18, § 6 (xv).
Worcester Cathed. Libr. 154 (= Bernard 829).
Venice:--St. Mark, Class. I, Cod. 139, f. 121-136 (xiv).
‘_Ovidii Metamorphoseos fabule ccxviii moraliter exposite._’ _Inc._ ‘In
hujus expositionis initio.’
MSS. Cambridge:--Pub. Libr. Ii II, 20, f. 162-199 (anon. but in the
same writing as the _Comment. super Fulgencium_ which it follows).
Worc. Cath. Libr. 89 (= 764), ‘Jo. Risdevallus.’
_In Valerium ad Rufinum de uxore non ducenda._ _Inc._ ‘Loqui perhibeor.’
Cf. MSS. Cambridge:--Pub. Libr. Mm I, 18, § 5; and London:--Lambeth
Palace 330 (xv).
_Commentaries on St. Augustine’s De Civitate Dei._ _Inc._ ‘Magnus dominus
et laudabilis nimis in civitate Dei.’
MSS. Oxford:--C.C.C. 186 and 187 (sec. xv _ineuntis_); on books 1, 2,
3, 6, and 7, by ‘Jo. Rydevallis’ or ‘Rydewall,’ Friar Minor[1171].
55. =Lawrence Briton= is perhaps the same as Laurentius Wallensis
mentioned by Tanner, who wrote a dialogue on free will[1172]. A sermon by
him is preserved in Merton College, MS. 248, f. 170. He flourished about
1340. A Dominican of the same name was S.T.P. of Paris in the thirteenth
century[1173]. Among the MSS. mentioned in the old catalogue (1381) at
Assisi[1174], is a ‘_Summa mag. fratris Laurentii Vualensis Anglici
ordinis Minorum_;’ this is perhaps a mistake for Johannes Wallensis.
56. =John de Rudinton= or =Rodyngton= belonged to the custody of Oxford,
and the convent of Stamford[1175]. He was D.D. of Oxford[1176], nineteenth
Provincial Minister of England[1177], and is described in the Register of
the Grey Friars of London as ‘vir sanctissimus[1178].’ He was buried at
Bedford[1179]; Bale and his followers mention 1348, the date of the first
great pestilence, as the year of his death.
_Joannes Rodinchon in lib. i. Sententiarum._
Included by Joannes Picardus in his _Thesaurus Theologorum_ (A. D.
1503)[1180].
_Johannis de Rodynton determinationes theologicae._
MS. Munich:--Bibl. Regiae, Cod. Lat. 22023 (sec. xiv).
_Quaestiones super quartum librum Sententiarum_ (by the same author?).
MS. ibid. fol. 18.
_Questiones super quodlibeta rodincon._
MS. Bruges, 503 (sec. xv).
57. =John de Howden= (c. 1340).
[John Hoveden of London, S.T.P. and author of many works, was not a friar;
he died A. D. 1275: Tanner, _Bibl._ 415.]
58. =T. Stanschaw=, called by Brewer, G. Stanforth[1181], by others,
Thomas Stanchaw, Straveshaw, &c., was a Minorite of Bristol[1182]. Bale
says:
‘obiit Avenione A. D. 1346. Ex quodam Minoritarum registro[1183].’
Some sermons in MS. Merton Coll. 248 (sec. xiv _exeuntis_) are
ascribed to ‘Stanschawe.’
A number of works are attributed to him by Bale, ‘ex Bibliotheca
Nordovicensi,’ and ‘ex officina Roberti Stoughton[1184].’
59. =Edmund Grafton.=
60. =Stephen Sorel.=
61. =Adam Wodham= or =Godham= was one of the most famous of the later
Franciscan schoolmen[1185]. He is said to have lived chiefly at Norwich,
London, and Oxford[1186], and was probably reader in theology at several
convents in succession. He was a follower of William of Ockham in
philosophy and probably attended his lectures. He may be the Adam to whom
Ockham’s _Summa logices_ was addressed[1187]. The date of his lecturing as
regent master at Oxford is unknown; it must have been about 1340 or soon
after. He was perhaps the ‘Frater Adam magister in sacra theologia de
Anglia,’ who went to Basel in 1339 to consult Friar James de Porta on some
miracles alleged to have been wrought there[1188]. He died, if we may
believe Bale, at Babwell in 1358[1189].
_Comment. in IV libros Sententiarum_, abbreviated by Henry of Oyta. _Inc.
prol._ ‘Ista est lex Adam.’
MSS. Paris:--Bibl. Nat. 15892 and 15893 (sec. xiv)[1190].
Bruges, 162, ‘Magistri Adae lecturae super IV. Sententiarum’ (?).
Toulouse, 246, the abbreviated version of the lectures of Adam Godham
or ‘Adam de Vodronio’ by Henry de Hoyta, written in the Franciscan
convent at Paris, A. D. 1399.
Rouen, 581 (sec. xiv-xv).
Printed at Paris, 1512. Perhaps some of the MSS. cited above contain
the original work of Adam Wodham. See Wadding, _Sup. ad Script._ 2-3.
_Quaestiones variae philosophicae et theologicae_, by Godham and
others[1191].
MS. Brit. Mus.: Harl. 3243 (sec. xiv).
_Comment, super Cantica Canticorum._
MS. formerly in the Franciscan Library in London (Leland, _Collect._
III, 49).
_Postilla super Ecclesiasticum_, Lib. I.
‘Ex registro Decani Nordovicensis’ (Bale MS. Bodl. Seld. sup. 64).
_Determinationes_, or, _Determinationes XI_. _Inc._ ‘Utrum officina.’
Mentioned in _Catalogus illustrium Franciscanorum_, and by Bale (MS.
_ut supra_) ‘ex bibliotheca Nordovicensi[1192].’
62. =Robert de Redclive.=
63. =Thomas Radford= (cf. 51st master).
64. =John Went= or =Gwent= was a native of the Bristol custody[1193]. He
probably incepted in theology and lectured to the Friars at Oxford about
1340 or soon after. His character for holiness was such that he was
believed to have wrought miracles in his lifetime[1194]. He succeeded John
de Rodyngton as Provincial Minister, being the twentieth in Order,
probably between 1340 and 1350[1195]. Bale adds:
‘he died at Hereford A. D. 1348, as I have found in a register of the
Minorites[1196].’
It is however not improbable that he found only the first statement in the
register and added the date. Both the catalogues of the Provincial
Ministers state that he was buried at Hereford[1197].
65. =Thomas Oterborne= can hardly have written the chronicle generally
ascribed to him. The chronicle itself bears no marks of having been
written by a Franciscan; even the notices of the Order given in Walsingham
and the Eulogium Historiarum are sometimes omitted, and usually shortened,
in the so-called Otterbourne. But apart from this, the evidence of dates
is fairly conclusive: the chronicle, as edited by Hearne, leaves off
abruptly in the year 1420, and Hearne puts Otterbourne’s death at 1421.
Pits and Wood suppose from MSS. which end in 1411 that the writer died in
that year. Hearne says
‘there are not wanting MSS. which bring the history hardly beyond
Edward III.’
But even assuming the existence of such MSS. it is practically impossible
that they can have been the work of the Franciscan doctor. Thomas
Oterborne must have lectured at Oxford before 1350. It is true that the
last nine names of lectors given in the list are in a more recent hand
than the earlier ones; but the names of Went and Oterborne are in the same
writing, and there can be no reasonable doubt that they were
contemporaries. The dates of Oterborne’s two immediate successors at
Oxford are unknown[1198], and the list of lectors here comes to an end. We
cannot therefore know whether there were any more lectors before Simon
Tunstede. Assuming that he was the sixty-eighth lector, we may naturally
conclude that the sixty-fifth read several years before him, i.e. several
years before 1351 when Simon was ‘regent among the Minorites at
Oxford[1199].’ It is therefore most probable that Thomas was reader not
later than 1345. The historian was perhaps the Thomas Otterburn who became
rector of Chingford in 1393 and was ordained priest in 1394[1200].
66. =John Valeys=[1201] was perhaps the Friar John Wells who took a
prominent part in the disputed election to the Chancellorship in 1349, as
a supporter of John Wyllyot, fellow of Merton, whose conduct seems to have
been of a peculiarly riotous and lawless character[1202]. He may possibly
be the John Welle, S.T.P. and Friar Minor[1203], who was robbed by his
servant in London in 1377; some curious details about this affair will be
found in Appendix B.
67. =Richard Malevile= of the London Custody (c. 1350?); this name is
added in a still later hand.
CHAPTER III.
FRANCISCANS WHO STUDIED IN THE CONVENT AT OXFORD, OR HAD SOME OTHER
CONNEXION WITH THE TOWN OR THE UNIVERSITY.
=Agnellus= or =Angnellus of Pisa= was custodian of Paris before becoming
first Provincial of England[1204]. He is said to have been made Provincial
by St. Francis in 1219[1205]; the order as given by Francis a S.
Clara[1206] is as follows:
‘Ego frater Franciscus de Assisio Minister Generalis praecipio tibi
fratri Agnello de Pisa per obedientiam, ut vadas ad Angliam, et ibi
facias officium Ministeratus. Vale. Frater Franciscus de Assisio.’
It may be doubted whether this letter is authentic, nor is the date beyond
dispute. It may be considered as certain that Agnellus did not come to
England till September 1224[1207]. He was then a deacon, and about thirty
years of age[1208]. He landed with eight others at Dover, went to
Canterbury, and thence to London, establishing houses and receiving
novices. Such was his humility that he long refused the order of
priesthood, and only at length consented, when the Provincial Chapter had
procured a command from the General Chapter, that the order should be
conferred on him[1209]. He was a zealous guardian of the primitive poverty
of the Rule of St. Francis, and would only allow houses to be built or
areas to be enlarged where it was absolutely necessary[1210]. He urged the
demolition of a conventual building called _Valvert_ at Paris, and forbade
the enlargement of the house at Gloucester: he had the infirmary at Oxford
built so low that a man could scarcely stand upright in it. He built a
school at Oxford of more generous proportions, and encouraged the love of
learning in the Order[1211]. The choice of Grostete as the first master of
the Minorites was due to Agnellus[1212]. He was, according to Matthew
Paris, on familiar terms with the King, and was one of his
counsellors[1213]. In December, 1233, he offered his services as
peace-maker between Henry III and the rebellious Earl Marshall, though his
efforts to induce the latter to submit were unavailing[1214]. It would
seem to have been after this that he went to Rome on some business of the
English prelates[1215], and he may also at the same time have attended a
General Chapter in Italy[1216]. On his return, he was seized with
dysentery at Oxford; it was believed that his health had never recovered
from the severities to which he was exposed while labouring for peace in
the winter of 1233[1217]. He recommended that the General Minister, Elias,
should be requested to appoint Albert of Pisa, or Haymo, or Radulf of
Rheims, as his successor. He constituted Peter of Tewkesbury his Vicar,
and made his last confession to him. He died at Oxford in great pain,
crying continually, ‘_Veni, dulcissime Jesu_.’ The exact date of his death
is uncertain; it was probably early in 1235[1218]. He was, says Eccleston,
‘a man specially endowed with natural prudence and foresight, and
conspicuous for every virtue[1219].’
He was buried in a wooden or leaden coffin in the choir of the chapel
before the altar. When this chapel was superseded by the larger church,
the friars came by night to remove the body; they found the coffin and the
grave
‘full of the purest oil, the corpse with its garments incorrupt and
smelling most sweetly.’
His bones were laid with due pomp in ‘a fair stone sepulchre’ in the new
church, and the miracles which were wrought at his tomb were a source of
honour and profit to the Convent at Oxford[1220].
=Richard de Ingewrthe= or =Indewurde= (Norfolk) is named second in the
list of friars who came over with Agnellus in 1224. He was a priest and
advanced in years; according to Eccleston he was the first Minorite who
preached to the people ‘_citra montes_.’ With three other friars he
established the first house of Franciscans in London (at Cornhill); he
then proceeded to Oxford with Richard of Devon, hired a house of Robert le
Mercer in St. Ebbe’s, and thus founded the original convent in the
University town. The two companions then went on to Northampton, where
they again hired a house and founded a friary. Richard of Ingewrthe
afterwards became custodian of Cambridge, which was specially noted for
its poverty under his rule. In 1230, when Agnellus attended the General
Chapter at Assisi, he was associated in the Vicariate of the English
Province with Henry de Ceruise or Treviso, a lay-brother from Lombardy.
Soon after this he was sent by the General, John Parens, as Provincial
Minister to Ireland. At length he was released from the office in General
Chapter by Albert of Pisa (c. 1239), set out as a missionary to Palestine,
and died there[1221].
=Richard of Devon=, a young acolyte, was the third of those who came over
with Agnellus. He accompanied R. of Ingewrthe from Canterbury to London,
Oxford, and Northampton;
‘and (in Eccleston’s words) left us many examples of longsuffering and
obedience. For after he had traversed many provinces in obedience to
commands, he was for fifteen years worn out by frequent quartan fevers
and remained continually at Romehale[1222].’
=Adam of Oxford= was a master before he entered the Order[1223]. The
account of his conversion given by Eccleston[1224] is as follows:
Master Adam of Oxford, of worldwide fame[1225], had made a vow that he
would do anything he was asked to do ‘for the love of the blessed
Mary;’ and he told this to a certain recluse, who was a friend of his.
She revealed his secret to her friends, that is, to a monk of Reading,
another of the Cistercian Order, and a Friar Preacher; telling them
that they could gain such a man in such a way; not wishing that Adam
should become a Friar Minor. But the Blessed Virgin did not permit
anyone in his presence to make the needful request; but deferred it
to another time. One night he dreamed that he had to cross a bridge,
where some men were throwing their nets into the stream, endeavouring
to catch him: but he escaped this with great difficulty and reached a
very peaceful spot. Now when by the divine will he had escaped all
others, he went casually to see the Friars Minors, and during the
conversation Friar William de Colvile, the elder, a man of great
sanctity, said to him: ‘Dear master, enter our Order for the love of
the Mother of God and help our simplicity.’ And Adam immediately
consented to do so, as if he had heard the words from the lips of the
Mother of God.
He assumed the habit on January 25[1226], probably A. D. 1227. He was at
this time assistant, or secretary[1227], to the great Adam Marsh, whom he
soon afterwards induced to join the Franciscans. Shortly after this, Adam
of Oxford went to Gregory IX, and was at his own desire sent to preach to
the Saracens[1228]. From a letter of Grostete’s, addressed to Agnellus and
the Convent of Friars Minors at Oxford, relating to this subject, and
written in or before 1231[1229], we learn that Adam had formed the
resolution of going to preach to the infidels before he entered the Order,
and that he was induced to take this latter step partly because it was
likely to add to his influence as a missionary. Grostete urges the Friars
not to grieve for his loss:
‘for the light of his knowledge is so bright that it ought to be
concentrated most there where it may dissipate the thickest darkness
of infidelity.’ ‘Have no fear,’ the writer continues, ‘that he will be
cut off from the “Sacred Page;” he has humility, and no “_haeretica
pravitas_” will slip in.’
He died at Barlete, and miracles are said to have been wrought by his
relics or his memory[1230].
=William of York=, ‘a solemn bachelor,’ was probably an Oxford man, as he
entered the Order on the same day as Adam of Oxford[1231].
=Adam Rufus=[1232] studied under Grostete in the early part of the
thirteenth century, presumably at Oxford. A letter from ‘Robert Grostete
called Master,’ written perhaps before he held any preferments, i.e.
before 1210, addressed to ‘Master Adam Rufus,’ is extant; it is a treatise
on the nature of angels, and Grostete asks Adam to inquire diligently the
opinions of the wise men, with whom he converses, on the subject. In
another letter written about 1237, Grostete mentions having heard of
Friar Ernulphus, papal penitentiary, from ‘Friar Adam Rufus of good
memory,’ formerly his beloved pupil and friend. It may be inferred from
his connexion with Grostete and Ernulphus or Arnulfus, Vicar of the Order
of Minorites[1233], that the Order which he entered was that of the
Franciscans.
=Henry de Reresby=, who entered the Order abroad, was vicar of the
custodian of Oxford about 1235 or before. He was made first provincial of
Scotland by Elias, but died before he could enter on his duties[1234].
According to Leland’s notes from Eccleston he died at Leicester; according
to another account, at Acre in Norfolk[1235]. After his death he appeared
to the custodian of Oxford, and said that,
‘if the friars were not damned for excess in buildings, they would at
any rate be severely punished,’ and added, ‘if the friars said the
divine service well, they would be the sheep of the Apostles[1236].’
=Walter=, a canon of Dunstable, and =John=, a novice of the same priory,
escaped from their house through a broken window and joined the
Franciscans at Oxford in 1233. Walter afterwards returned with three
Minorites to the Chapter of Dunstable, seeking absolution. After
submitting to corporal punishment, he was absolved; he was further ordered
to restore the books and clothes (_quaternos et pannos_) which he had
taken with him, and to deliberate for a year--i.e. during his
noviciate--whether the discipline of the Order which he had entered was
more severe than that of the Order he had left; if it were so, he was to
remain a Minorite; if not, he was to return to Dunstable. John was found
by the Prior of Dunstable at London and similarly absolved: he afterwards
went to Rome[1237].
=John of Reading=, who became Abbat of Osney in 1229[1238], joined the
Minorites in 1235, probably at Northampton[1239]. He is probably the Abbat
to whom Bartholomew of Pisa refers as having assisted with his own hands
at the building of the Franciscan Church at Oxford[1240]. He was certainly
at Oxford about 1250, when Adam Marsh wrote to the Provincial that he was
in ill-health and requested that Friar Adam de Bechesoueres, the physician
of the Order, might be sent to Oxford to attend him[1241]. Another ‘Frater
Johannes Anglicus de Redingis’ was Visitor of Germany in 1229, and
Minister of Saxony 1230-1232[1242].
=Albert of Pisa= did not, as stated by Bartholomew of Pisa and others,
accompany Agnellus to England. He was (according to Eccleston) Minister of
Hungary, Germany (1223-1227), Bologna, the March of Ancona, the March of
Treviso, Tuscany, perhaps of Spain in 1227[1243]. He was one of the three
recommended by Agnellus as fit persons to succeed him as Provincial of
England, but he was not appointed by Elias till almost a year after the
death of the first Minister[1244] (c. 1236). He reached England on
December 13, and celebrated a Provincial Chapter at Oxford on February
2[1245]. On another occasion Eccleston tells us--
‘Friar Albert was present at the sermon of a young friar at Oxford;
and when the preacher boldly condemned loftiness of buildings and
abundance of food, he rebuked him for vainglory[1246].’
Soon after his arrival, Albert appointed lecturers at London and
Canterbury[1247], though he does not appear to have been a learned man
himself. His connexion with Oxford was slight, and his acts as Provincial
can hardly claim a place here. After remaining two years and a half in
England, he went to Rome to take part in the proceedings against
Elias[1248]. On the deposition of the latter (May 15, 1239), Albert was
elected Minister General. He died in the same or the following year[1249]
and was buried at Rome[1250].
=Ralph of Maidstone=, bishop of Hereford 1234-1239, resigned his see in
December, 1239, and was admitted into the Franciscan Order by Haymo[1251].
He took this step in accordance with a vow, made perhaps before he became
bishop[1252]. It is uncertain at which convent he took the habit.
Bartholomew of Pisa states that he helped with his own hands to build the
church at Oxford[1253]. It is not improbable that he was there for some
time. He was a Master of Paris, noted for his learning, and was among the
‘famous Englishmen’ who left Paris owing to the disputes in 1229 and
settled at Oxford on the invitation of Henry III[1254]. According to a
later addition in one of the MSS. of Eccleston’s Chronicle, he lived five
years after assuming the habit, staying for the most part in the convent
of Gloucester[1255]. The Dunstable Annals state that he was, for a time at
any rate, rendered incapable by a fall from a rock, but whether this took
place before or after he became a friar is not quite clear[1256]. He died
at Gloucester (c. 1245) and
‘was buried in the choir of the brethren, in the presbytery, on the
north side under an arch[1257].’
A most interesting relic of the friar-bishop is now in the British Museum.
Royal MS. 3 C. xi, a copy of the New Testament with gloss (sec. xiii),
belonged to the Friars Minors of Canterbury,
‘_ex dono Fratris Radulphi de Maydenestane, quondam Episcopi
Herefordensis_.’
He wrote a _Commentary on the Sentences_ when he was Archdeacon of Chester
(c. A. D. 1220). This is mentioned in a treatise on the Sacraments,
‘_secundum Mag. R. de Maidinstan archidiaconum Cestrensem super
Sententias_.’
MS. London: Gray’s Inn, 14, f. 28-32 (sec. xiii).
=William of Nottingham= was marked out by nature for a Mendicant Friar.
‘He told me,’ writes Eccleston, ‘that when he was living in his
father’s house and some poor boys came begging alms, he gave them of
his bread, and received the crust from them, because it seemed to him,
that hard bread, which was asked for the love of God, was sweeter than
the delicate bread which he ate and his companions; and so, to make
their bread sweet like this, the little boys went and begged in their
turn (_ab invicem_) for the love of God[1258].’
William’s brother, Augustine, was also a Minorite; he was first in the
household of Innocent IV, accompanied the Patriarch of Antioch, the pope’s
nephew, to Syria, and at length became bishop of Laodicea[1259]. William
himself successfully championed the interests of his Order against the
Dominicans at the Roman Curia[1260]. At one period he lived for some time
in the Franciscan convent at Rome, where, though (to quote his own words)
‘the brethren had no pittance except chestnuts, he grew so fat that he
often blushed[1261].’
He acted as vicar for Friar Haymo in England (1239), and in 1240 was
himself
‘elected and confirmed Provincial Minister by those to whom the
appointment had been entrusted[1262].’
He had never held any subordinate office, such as that of custodian or
warden[1263]. He was a diligent student of the Scriptures, and seems to
have attended Grostete’s lectures at Oxford[1264]. As minister, he was
energetic in furthering the study of theology, and in developing the
educational organization of the Franciscans in England[1265]. During his
ministry, the friary at Oxford was greatly enlarged[1266]. Evidence of his
popularity was given in the Chapter held at Oxford by the General
Minister, John of Parma (c. 1248), when the friars unanimously refused to
sanction his deposition[1267]. He was ‘absolved’ from the ministry in the
General Chapter of Metz, and sent on behalf of the Order to the
Pope[1268]. It was probably in this Chapter, that, with the assistance of
John Kethene and Gregory de Bosellis, he carried a decree ‘almost against
the whole Chapter,’
‘ut privilegium indultum a Domino Papa de recipienda pecunia per
procuratores penitus destrueretur; et expositio Regulae secundum
dominum Innocentium, quantum ad ea in quibus laxior esset quam
Gregoriana, suspenderetur[1269].’
The cause of his deposition is unknown, but the event excited the
displeasure of the English friars, who called a Provincial Chapter and
unanimously re-elected him[1270]. A letter from Adam Marsh, congratulating
him on this second election and urging him not to decline the office is
extant[1271]. But William of Nottingham was already dead. When he reached
Genoa on his mission to the Pope, his _socius_, Friar Richard, was struck
down by the plague;
‘while others fled, he remained to comfort his companion, and like him
he was struck down and died[1272].’
The date of the Chapter of Metz, and consequently of William’s death, is
not quite certain; it was probably in the spring or early summer of
1251[1273]. A few extracts from the chronicle of Eccleston (who knew him
personally) will illustrate the character of the man.
He sat very long in meditation after matins, and was unwilling to
attend to confessions and consultations at night, as his predecessors
had done.... Above all things, he was careful to avoid the vice of
suspicion. Familiarities of great persons and of women he most
studiously avoided, and, with wonderful magnanimity, thought nothing
of incurring the anger of the powerful for the sake of justice. He
used to say that great persons entrap those familiar with them by
their advice, and women with their mendacity and malice turn the heads
even of the devout by their flatteries. He studied with all diligence
to restore the good name of those who were defamed, provided that he
thought them penitent, and to comfort the hearts of the desolate,
especially of those who held offices in the Order[1274].
He represented the tendency to a less strict interpretation of the Rule in
regard to money than had hitherto obtained in England, holding that--
‘the friars might in a hundred cases lawfully contract debts, and
might with their own hands dispense the money of others in alms. He
said further that it was right after a visitation to amuse oneself a
little in order to distract the mind from what one had heard[1275].’
The following story may be regarded as an instance of his cynicism or
knowledge of human nature:--
‘He used to narrate that St. Stephen, the founder of the Order of
Grammont, placed a chest in a secret and safe place, and forbade
anyone to go near it during his life. The brethren were very
inquisitive, and after his death could not refrain from breaking it
open, and they found only a piece of parchment with the words; Brother
Stephen salutes his brethren and prays them to guard themselves from
the laity. For just as you held the chest in honour, as long as you
did not know what was in it, so they will hold you in honour[1276].’
That the well-known _Commentary on the Gospels_, called also _Unum ex
quatuor_, or _De concordia evangelistarum_, by Friar William of
Nottingham, was by this William, and not by his namesake, the seventeenth
provincial of the English Minorites[1277], is proved by Eccleston’s words
(Mon. Franc. I, p. 70)--
‘... Verba Sancti Evangelii devotissime recolebat; unde et super unum
ex quatuor Clementinis (Phillipps MS. f. 80 reads _Clementis_) canones
perutiles compilavit, et expositionem quam idem Clemens fecit complete
scribi in ordine procuravit.’
The commentary was founded on the work of Clement of Langthon[1278], and
the number of MSS. of it still in existence attest its popularity in the
Middle Ages.
The work comprised 12 parts. _Inc._ ‘Da mihi intellectum.’
MSS. Brit. Museum: Royal 4 E ii. (A. D. 1381); readers are asked to
pray ‘pro anima Fratris Willielmi de Notingham, qui studio laborioso
predictam Expositionem ex variis compilavit.’
Oxford:--Bodl.: Laud. Misc. 165 (sec. xiv ineuntis), Balliol Coll. 33
(sec. xiv exeuntis). Merton Coll. 156 and 157 (sec. xiv). Magdalen
Coll. 160 (sec. xv). St. John’s Coll. 2 (sec. xv).
Cf. Merton Coll. 68, fol. 121 (sec. xv), ‘Questiones quas movet
Notyngham in scripto suo super evangelia extracte secundum ordinem
alphabeticum per Mag. Joh. Wykham.’ _Inc._ ‘Abel. Queritur super:’
Lincoln Coll. 78 (sec. xv), a similar work: _Inc._ ‘Abraham. Queritur
super illo dicto.’
_Comment. in Longobardum_, perhaps by the other W. of Nottingham.
Mentioned in the Catalogue of Illustrious Franciscans (Leland,
_Script._).
=A. of Hereford= (c. 1248) was assigned by the Provincial to Adam Marsh as
his secretary. Adam thought him too able a man to be kept in this
subordinate position; his learning and eloquence marked him out for a
teacher and preacher; many of those appointed by the Provincial Chapter to
lecture on theology were far inferior to him. In addition to this his
health would not stand the constant strain to which the secretary of the
indefatigable doctor was necessarily subjected. Adam therefore requested
the Provincial to send him to London to pursue his studies, as A. of
Hereford himself desired[1279].
=Laurence de Sutthon= was the friar whom Adam Marsh suggested to the
Provincial as A. of Hereford’s successor. A ‘Friar Laurence’ was with Adam
in 1249, and the latter wrote to Thomas of York, probably after 1250:
‘Friar Laurence sends you the books of the mother of philosophy (?)
for which you sent[1280].’
=Hugo de Lyndun= seems to have been a weak brother at Oxford--weak in mind
and body--whom Adam Marsh took under his especial care (c. 1253)[1281].
=John of Beverley= was a friar at Oxford when Martin was warden, and was
known to Adam Marsh. Friar Thomas of York laboured for the salvation of
the father of this J. of Beverley[1282].
=Gregory de Bosellis= was the first lecturer to the friars at
Leicester[1283] (c. 1240?). He was at the General Chapter of Genoa (1244)
or Metz when he supported W. of Nottingham, Minister of England[1284]; and
he was Vicar of the Province at the time of the same Minister’s
death[1285]. He was with the Earl and Countess of Leicester in
Gascony[1286], and went to the papal court with the Archbishop of
Canterbury in 1250[1287], when the rules of the Order against riding on
horseback were relaxed in his favour[1288]. He had studied at some
University, probably at Oxford, and was capable of filling Adam Marsh’s
place as lecturer to the friars there, though it does not appear whether
he ever actually did so[1289].
=Thomas of Maydenstan=, an invalid novice at Oxford, c. 1253; Adam Marsh
hearing a rumour that he was to be sent away from Oxford begged the
Minister to let him remain,
‘as it is believed that his removal would do injury to the souls of
several persons of whose conversion no slight hope is entertained.’
The brethren at Oxford joined in the request[1290].
=Thomas Bachun= of the Convent of Nottingham was recommended by Adam Marsh
as a suitable person to act as private secretary or amanuensis to Friar
Richard of Cornwall, when the latter was about to proceed to Paris, 1252.
It is however uncertain whether he was appointed or whether he studied at
Oxford[1291].
=Adam de Bechesoueres= or =Hekeshovre=[1292] occurs several times in Adam
Marsh’s letters as the chief physician among the early English friars.
Thus at one time Adam writes to John of Stamford, custodian of Oxford,
requesting him to allow a poor sick scholar named Ralph of Multon, a
friend of the writer’s, to consult Friar A. de Bechesoueres, who has
already done him good. The famous Walter de Merton went to him once with a
letter of introduction from Adam Marsh. He was wanted again at Oxford to
attend Friar John of Reading, formerly Abbat of Osney. Adam Marsh
recommended Grostete to consult him about his health. At another time we
hear of him going to the General Minister in France, with a ‘supplicatory
letter’ from Adam Marsh;
‘he promised,’ adds the latter in a letter to the English Provincial,
‘to return to England soon and humbly submit in all things to the
regular discipline.’
=N. of Anivers=, =Anilyeres= or =Aynelers=, a youth of ability, fair
learning and great promise, was ordered by the Minister General to go to
France, probably about the year 1248. Adam Marsh, anxious that the best
should be done both for the young friar and the Order, after consultation
with Peter of Tewkesbury, custodian of Oxford, obtained leave from the
Provincials of England and France for him to stay for a year or two in
England, the consent of the General being also secured:
‘it is thought,’ adds Adam in his letter to the Minister of France,
‘that he will at present find the requisite helps to the successful
study of letters more easily obtainable in England than anywhere
else.’
N. de Anivers was therefore allowed to spend a year in theological study
at Oxford, Cambridge or London. Adam Marsh maintained his interest in his
welfare, and, after the year was over, requested the Minister of France to
allow him to continue his studies in England up to the ensuing Pentecost:
it is probable that he was a pupil of Adam’s at Oxford[1293].
=William of Pokelington= (Yorkshire) entered the Order about 1250 and made
his profession at Oxford in 1251[1294]. He was then a master. Shortly
before this he had been ill and perhaps took the vows on his
recovery[1295]. He was an intimate friend of Adam Marsh and at one period
acted as his secretary[1296]. Adam employed him several times as messenger
to Grostete[1297], who had a high opinion of him and liked to have him as
a companion[1298].
=Walter de Madele=, =Maddele= or =Maddeley= studied in the Franciscan
Convent at Oxford (c. 1235 seq.). While here, he ventured to disregard the
custom which forbade the friars to wear shoes.
‘It happened,’ says Eccleston[1299], ‘that he found two shoes, and
when he went to Matins, he put them on. He stood therefore at Matins,
feeling unusually self-satisfied. But afterwards when he was in bed,
he dreamt that he had to go through a dangerous pass between Oxford
and Gloucester called “_boysaliz_” (?), which was infested by robbers;
and when he was descending into a deep valley, they rushed at him from
both sides, shouting, “Kill him!” In great terror he said that he was
a Friar Minor. “You lie,” they cried, “for you do not go barefoot;”
and when he put out his foot confidently, he found that he was wearing
those same shoes: and starting in confusion from sleep, he threw the
shoes into the middle of the courtyard.’
Walter was ‘_socius_’ or secretary to Agnellus and was at Oxford at the
time of the latter’s death (1235)[1300]. Later he was in Germany with
Peter of Tewkesbury, minister of Cologne, and returned to England in 1249
with Friar Paulinus, perhaps a German, in obedience to Peter[1301]. He
enjoyed a considerable reputation as a theologian and was lecturer at a
Franciscan Convent. Adam Marsh once sent for him to come and see him at
Oxford.