m. 10, is a grant of ten marks to a friar, apparently a Minorite of

Northampton, ‘_ad unam Bibliotecam emendam_.’

[377] Mon. Franc. I, 359-360. Adam Marsh writes to the Provincial, ‘rogans obnixius quatenus ... Bibliam carissimi P. de Wygornia piae recordationis eidem (sc. fratri Thomae de Dokkyng) ad usum salutarem assignare velitis.... Insuper non desunt qui de pretio libri memorati cumulatius, ut audio, satisfaciant.’

[378] MS. Canonic. _ut supra_; cf. Burney MS. 5, Bible belonging to Minorites of St. Edmundsbury, ‘cujus usus debetur fratri Waltero de Bukenham ad vitam.’

[379] Mon. Franc. I, 349: ‘Plures, aut audio, reperientur opportuni ad nunc dictum fratris obsequium (i.e. to act as Secretary to Friar Ric. of Cornwall), si scripturae quos ex studiosa praefati fratris R. (Cornubiae) vigilantia manibus suis conscripserint, singulis suae concedantur in usus utilitatis privatae, tam ad communitatis profectum ampliorem.’

[380] Bullarium Romanum, I, 110. Friars Minors promoted to bishoprics, &c. shall give up to the General or Provincial Minister ‘libros et alia quae tempore suae promotionis habent,’ as these must really belong to the Order. (A. D. 1255.) The books were however practically treated as private property; see e. g. a MS. in the Bodleian, Laud. Misc. 528, ‘quondam Johannis Ston et Agnetis uxoris ex dono Johannis, fratris ordinis Minorum.’ Cf. ibid. No. 176; Ball. Coll. MS. 133, f. 1, &c.

[381] MS. Canonic. _ut supra_, where careful and elaborate instructions are given: e. g. ‘meliores seu utiliores libri semper remaneant in conventu’; ‘Libri vero ad communitatem custodie pertinentes distribuantur in provinciali capitulo fratribus ejusdem custodie tantum per ministrum et diffinitores juxta disposicionem custodis et fratrum discretorum,’ &c.

[382] Opera Ined. p. 13.

[383] Mon. Franc. I, 391. The MS. of Adam Marsh’s letters in the Cottonian Collection was probably written in the Franciscan Convent at Oxford.

[384] Merton Coll. MSS. 168, 169, 170, 171.

[385] Gascoigne, _Loci a libro veritatum_ (ed. Rogers), pp. 103, 140. Cf. Gottlieb, _Mittelalterliche Bibliotheken_.

[386] Stevens, Wood, &c.: who however do not assert it positively.

[387] Close Roll, 10 Hen. III, m. 6 (3rd Sept.). The usual meaning of _Biblioteca_ in mediaeval Latin is _Bible_, and this may possibly be the meaning here.

[388] Mon. Franc. I, 634 (from Bartholomew of Pisa).

[389] Nic. Trivet, Annales, 243.

[390] Mon. Franc. I, 185, letter to the Dean of Lincoln: ‘scriptis ... tam editis quam translatis.’

[391] MS. Bodl. 198.

[392] Gascoigne, _passim_; cf. note in Balliol Coll. MS. 129, fol. 7 (the handwriting is, I think, Gascoigne’s): ‘et nota quod in illo armario sive libraria (sc. fratrum minorum Oxon.) sunt optimi libri et specialiter ex dono domini R. Grostete ... qui fecit plures libros ibi existentes.’

[393] Note in Bodleian MS. quoted in preface to Grostete’s _Epistolae_, p. xcvi.

[394] Gascoigne, pp. 102 and 174.

[395] Ibid. pp. 126, 177.

[396] Ibid. p. 138.

[397] Ibid. p. 126.

[398] Twyne, MS. XXI, 496: ‘ex tomo 2{o} et lib. 5{o} Doctrinalis Antiquitatis Ecclesiae Th. Waldeni fratris Carmelitae de Sacramentis, cap. 77.’

[399] Annales Minorum, I, 364. The first of these sermons, if not both of them, is contained in MSS. Royal 6 E v, 7 E ii, f. 251 b; Laud. Misc. 402, f. 133; Phillipps, 3119, fol. 62. The sermon _de laude paupertatis_ was preached on the feast of St. Martin to Franciscans: ‘sumusque in loco paupertatis et inter professores paupertatis.’ Cf. Mon. Franc. I, 69.

[400] See Gascoigne, pp. 102-3.

[401] Ibid. 140. William of Wykeham left his sandals to his college at Oxford; Register Arundel, fol. 215.

[402] ‘_Comment. de rebus Albionicis_,’ quoted in Wood MS. F 29 a, fol. 166, and 177 b. John Twyne lived c. 1500-1581.

[403] Wood-Clarke, II, 405, books of Richard Middleton; also some writings of Robert Kilwardby, mentioned by Boston of Bury (Tanner, _Bibl._ p. xxxviii.)

[404] ‘Libellus praeterea est instar catalogi de eruditis Franciscanis, quem olim vidi, atque adeo legi in collegio ei sectae dicato propter Isidis Vadum.’ Leland, _Script._ 268; other references to it, _ibid._ 269, 272, 289, 297, 302, 304, 315, 325, 326, 329, 406, 409, 433. It must have been compiled in the 15th century.

[405] MS. Balliol Coll. 129, fol. 7.

[406] Lambeth MS. 202, fol. 99 b: ‘et preter istas omelias super Jerimiam et ezechielem, scripsit idem Jeronymus 18 libros super ysaiam prophetam et 14 libros super ezechielem, ut patet inter fratres Minores Oxonie, ubi isti libri sunt’ (note by Gascoigne).

[407] Wood, Hist. et Antiq. (Latin ed.), p. 83; a note from Gascoigne: the book contained a full account of Grostete’s quarrel with Innocent IV in the chapter on Excommunication. MSS. of the work are Royal 7 C. XV, and Caius Coll. 184.

[408] Wood-Clark, II, 380; cf. R. Bacon, Opera Ined. p. 88. Hebrew was taught at Oxford in the fourteenth century; Twyne, MS. XXIV, 94, 101: cf. Wadding, VI, 199, on the efforts of Friar Raymund Lully to secure the teaching of oriental languages at Oxford and elsewhere.

[409] MSS. usually contained anathemas against any one who should deface or remove them. Persons into whose possession they came would naturally seek to obliterate all traces of their former ownership; e. g. in Royal MS. 3 D. I (fol. 234 b) the words ‘conventui fratrum minorum Lichefeldie’ (the former owners of the book) are almost obliterated; ‘a fure viz. qui codicem abstulerat,’ remarks Casley: cf. Bodl. MS. Canonic. Misc. 80 (a thirteenth-century Bible), ‘olim Fratrum ordinis Minorum de ...’

[410] Nos. 348 and 403. It is not expressly stated whether the latter belonged to the Oxford Franciscans; see Smith’s Catalogue, p. 166. I do not know the age of either of these MSS.; probably c. 1500.

[411] MS. Bodl. 198.

[412] Now Lincoln Coll. MS. 54: see p. 61, n. 7.

[413] Lambeth MS. 202 (sec. xiii). It cannot be certainly identified: the volume has been rebound and several leaves cut out at the end. There is nothing to indicate to what house or Order the book belonged. On fol. 81 occurs a note on the title of the ‘_Catalogus_’ of St. Jerome, with the addition: ‘Hoc Mag. Thomas Gascoigne Oxonia in Collegio de Oriell Ebor’ diosic’ natus; 1432.’ In Ball. Coll. MS. 129, f. 7, is the note, apparently in Gascoigne’s writing, ‘qui liber (sc. virorum illustrium) est in armario fratrum minorum Oxonie; et continet idem liber plures alios bonos libros.’ Lambeth MS. 202 contains also several treatises by St. Augustine, Isidore, &c.: see Todd’s Catalogue.

[414] MS. Cott. Vitell. C. viii: cf. Mon. Franc. I, p. lxix.

[415] Among the contents are, treatises against the Mendicant Orders, Grostete’s sermon in praise of poverty, Eccleston’s Chronicle, _Impugnacio Fratrum Minorum per Fratres Praedicatores apud Oxon’_, and other tracts relating for the most part to the Franciscans.

[416] Digby MS. 90; this extract is copied from the catalogue. The treatise has been printed under the name of Simon de Tunstede by E. de Coussemaker, ‘_Auctores de Musica_,’ &c., Vol. IV, pp. 220-299 (Paris, 1876).

[417] Twyne, MS. XXIII, 488, ‘ex chartophylacio civitatis Oxon. In fasciculo Brevium’; (this is not now among the City Records). The date is, ‘T. meipso apud Wodestok, 28 die Martii a{o} regni nostri 4{o},’ i.e. Edward III (not II, as Twyne), who was then at Woodstock; and the mention of P. de la Beche, sheriff, leaves no doubt on the matter (see Wood, Annals, A{o} 1327).

[418] Twyne, ut supra: ‘In dorso brevis, ita: “Gardianus ordinis fratrum minorum et frater Walterus de Chatton confrater ejusdem Gardiani nihil habent in balliva nostra extra sanctuarium ubi possunt summoneri seu attachiari; ideo de eis nihil actum est.”’

[419] e. g. his statement that in his time there were 30,000 students at Oxford.

[420] Sermon in Twyne, MS. XXII, 103 a-b.

[421] Mun. Acad. 233.

[422] Philobiblon (ed. E. C. Thomas), pp. 65-8.

[423] Ibid. (§ 135).

[424] Ibid. p. 47.

[425] The will of Henry Standish contains a bequest of five marks for books (1535); this is the only instance which I have found. See list of bequests in Chapter VII. On the other hand it must be remembered that a friary produced its own books.

[426] See note by Gascoigne in MS. Bodl. 198, fol. 107 (A. D. 1433): ‘et nota quod omnes note et figure in margine istius libri fuerunt scripte propria manu sancte memorie Magistri Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi Lincolniensis, et librum dedit mihi sponte sub sigillo suo conventus fratrum minorum Oxonie.’ Gascoigne is said to have given the books which he had from the Minorites to the libraries of Balliol, Oriel, Lincoln and Durham Colleges; this MS. was given to Durham College.

[427] Cromwell Corresp. (Rec. Office), Second Series, Vol. XXIII, fol. 709 b. Leland, who was evidently received with scant courtesy by the Franciscans, and who is consequently very bitter against them (he calls them ‘braying donkeys’), remarks on the dispersion of the books: ‘Nam Roberti episcopi volumina et exemplaria omnia, ingenti pretio comparata, furto ab ipsis Franciscanis, huc illuc ex praescripto commigrantibus (aut ut verius loquar) vagantibus sublata sunt’; quoted in Wood-Clark, II, 381-2.

[428] Mun. Acad. p. 264.

[429] Register G, fol. 35 a (A. Kell); Acta Cur. Cancell. F, fol. 156 b (W. German and J. Porret).

[430] Leland, Collect. Vol. III, p. 60. Cf. Wood-Clark, II, 381-2. Leland mentions only one library; but he probably saw all that was to be seen.

[431] Brewer, Mon. Francisc. I, p. li. See the rest of his luminous remarks there, and in his preface to R. Bacon, Opera Inedita.

[432] Opera Ined. pp. 19-20, Opus Tertium.

[433] Cf. Ibid. p. 116, on the potential value of burning-glasses in the Crusades.

[434] Ibid. 53. Cf. p. 50, ethical part of moral philosophy: ‘et haec est pulchrior sapientia quam possit dici.’

[435] e. g. Opus Majus, 46; Opus Tert. pp. 3-4, 10-11, 40, 48, 84; Opus Minus, 323; Compend. Studii, 395, 397, 400 sqq., &c.

[436] Twyne, MS. II, fol. 23, from Register of D’Alderby, bishop of Lincoln; printed in Wood, Hist, et Antiq. (Lat. ed.), p. 134, and in Wood-Clark, II, p. 386. It may seem bold to identify ‘Johannes Douns’ with the great schoolman, but there is no doubt he was a young friar at Oxford at the time (he lectured at Oxford c. 1304); and he is in company with many other prominent schoolmen of the time.

[437] Two of them were already D.D.’s.

[438] Opera Inedita, p. lvi. Cf. Sir Francis Bacon: ‘non accipit indoctus verba scientiae, nisi prius ea dixeris quae versantur in corde ejus.’

[439] Mon. Francisc. I, li. See ‘Les contes moralisés’ of Friar Nicholas Bozon. Wiclif is less complimentary to Friars’ sermons: they are ‘japes’ pleasing to the people, and ‘rimes’; Select Works, III, 180. The old school of theologians, secular and monastic, and the clergy disliked them intensely.

[440] The Franciscans at Northampton receive ten oaks to build a house for their schools; Close Roll, 42 Hen. III, m. 6 (dated Oxford, June 26).

[441] Mon. Franc. I, 38. Brewer (p. xlix) gives a misleading version of the passage. The original of the last part runs thus: ‘Assignaverat enim in Universitatibus, pro singulis locis, studentes, qui decedentibus vel amotis lectoribus succederent.’

[442] e.g. Thomas of York for Oxford, Mon. Franc. I, 357.

[443] It was not necessary that he should have been at any _studium generale_. Thus the Dominicans complain that a friar who has often lectured on the sentences and Bible _extra universitatem_ cannot lecture on the Bible at Oxford unless he is a B.D. _Acta Fratrum Praedicatorum_, Collectanea, II, 226. Cf. Clement IV’s constitutions for the Friars Minors in 1265, Bullarium Romanum, p. 130, § 5: ‘Fratres autem de ordine vestro, quos secundum institutiones ipsius ordinis conventibus vestris deputandos duxeritis in lectores, sine cujusquam alterius licentia libere in domibus praedicti ordinis legere ac docere valeant in theologica facultate (illis locis exceptis in quibus viget studium generale), ac etiam quilibet in facultate ipsa docturus solemniter incipere consuevit.’

[444] Mon. Franc. I, letter 178. It is no doubt addressed to W. of Nottingham (who died 1251), as in a letter written later than this and referring to R. de Thornham, Adam mentions ‘Peter minister of Cologne,’ i. e. P. of Tewkesbury, Nottingham’s successor in the English Provincialate; ibid. letter 183.

[445] Ibid. letter 179.

[446] Harl. MS. 431, fol. 100 b (printed in Appx. B). Wadding, Vol. X, p. 156 (cap. viii of the ‘_Martiniana_,’ A. D. 1430); Vol. XIII, 73.

[447] Harl. MS. _ut supra_. Cambridge Public Library, MS. Ee. V. 31, contains letters addressed by the convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, to the Provincial Minister and Chapter of the Friars Minors in England, requesting permission for Friar R. de Wydeheye to continue to act as master of their schools; the letter was written every year; e.g. in 1285, 1286, 1287, &c.: see ff. 21 b, 24 b, 28, 29, 34, &c.: cf. Wilkins, Concilia, II, 122.

[448] Cambridge MS. Ee. V. 31, fol. 156 b, ‘Littera fratris Roberti de Fulham quondam lectoris nostri de conversacione sua.’ It is doubtful whether he is the same as Robert de Wydeheye mentioned in the preceding note, and whether he had been at the University.

[449] See Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. d. Mittelalters, VI, 63 (A. D. 1292) and Wadding, _Sup. ad Script._ 717 (A. D. 1467); printed in Appx. B.

[450] Scotland for many years formed part of the English province. Mon. Franc. I, 32; Wadding, IV, 136.

[451] Stephen of Ireland, Malachias of Ireland, Maurice de Portu, &c.

[452] William de Prato; perhaps N. de Anilyeres, or Aynelers, or Anivers (Mon. Franc. I, 316, 379, 380). Several English students returned to Oxford from Paris before taking their degree (e.g. Ric. of Cornwall; Mon. Franc. I, 39); and probably many came over during the dissensions at Paris in the middle of the thirteenth century. See also decree of Gen. Chapter of Milan, 1285; ‘Provintia Aquitanie potest mittere unum studentem Oxonie’; Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. d. Mittelalters, VI, 56.

[453] See Part II, Peter Philargus of Candia (Alex. V), John de Castro of Bologna, Nic. de Burgo, Francis de S. Simone de Pisa, &c.

[454] Rymer’s Foed. IV, 30. It was probably in Paris that Roger Bacon was laughed at by the Spanish scholars at his lectures; Opera Ined. 91, 467.

[455] Part II, Gundesalvus de Portugalia, Peter Lusitanus, etc.

[456] Mon. Franc. I, 313, Part II, Hermann of Cologne, Mat. Döring; Anal. Francisc. II, 242: ‘Provinciae seu studia, ad quas et quae Provincia Argentinensis studentes de debito transmittere potest; videl. Oxoniae, Cantabrigiae,’ &c.

[457] Mon. Franc. I, 38: ‘Usque adeo fama fratrum Angliae, et profectus in studio aliis etiam provinciis innotuit, ut minister generalis, Frater Helias, mitteret pro Fratre Philippo Walensi et Fratre Ada de Eboraco qui Lugduni legerunt.’ Lyons was not a _generale studium_; Denifle, I, 223.

[458] Mon. Franc. I, 39. As the passage is of great interest, it may be quoted at some length: ‘An excellent lecturer, who studied with me at Oxford, used always in the schools, when the master was lecturing or disputing, to employ himself in the compilation of original things instead of attending to the lecture. Now when he had become lecturer himself, his hearers became so inattentive, that he said he would as lief shut up his book every day and go home, as lecture; and conscience-stricken he said, “By a just judgment of God, no one will listen to me, because I would never listen to any teacher.” He was besides, since he consorted too much with seculars and thus paid less attention to the brethren than was usual, a living example to the others, that the words of wisdom are only learnt in silence and quiet.... But after he had returned to himself and applied himself to quiet contemplation, he made such excellent progress that the Bishop of Lincoln said that “he himself could not have delivered such a lecture as he had delivered.” So, as his good fame grew, he was called to the parts of Lombardy by the General Minister, and in the very court of the pope was in high repute. But at last, as he was in the extreme agony, the Mother of God, to whom he had always been devoted, appeared to him, and drove away the evil spirits, and he was held worthy, as he afterwards revealed to a friend, to enter happily to the pains of purgatory. For he told him that he was in purgatory and had great pains in his feet, because he was wont to go too often to a holy woman (_religiosam matronam_) to console her, when he ought to have been intent on his lectures and other more necessary occupations; he begged him also to have masses celebrated for his soul.’

[459] Grostete, Epistolae, p. 334.

[460] Mon. Franc. I, 354.

[461] See Part II.

[462] Peckham’s Reg. p. 977, and Part II.

[463] For dates and authorities, see notices of these friars in Part II.

[464] Liber Conformitatum, fol. 126. This list does not always agree with Eccleston; the latter mentions e.g. a ‘custody of Salisbury,’ p. 27.

[465] Liber Conform. f. 99. For a curious use of the word, see Liberate Roll, 17 Hen. III, m. 10; the _custodes_ of the houses of Friars Minors in Dublin were seculars and trustees of their property.

[466] Liber Conform. ibid.

[467] Mon. Franc. I, 27. In the custody of Cambridge the brethren did not use ‘mantles.’

[468] Ibid.

[469] See notices in Part II.

[470] Evers, Analecta, p. 60.

[471] Ibid., and Mon. Franc. I, 48. The custodian admitted novices to profession; Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. VI, 89.

[472] Wright, Suppression of the Monasteries (Camden Soc.), p. 217. The word is sometimes used as equivalent to _gardianus_; e.g. Acta Cur. Cancell. ~F~. fol. 53 b. Cf. W. of Esseby, Warden and Custodian of Oxford, Mon. Franc. I, 10, 27.

[473] Mon. Franc. I, 69. If we may believe Eccleston, the sermon seems hardly to have expressed Grostete’s real convictions; he told W. of Nottingham in private, ‘quod adhuc fuit gradus quidam superior, scilicet vivere ex proprio labore.’ On this sermon, see Chapter IV, p. 58.

[474] Ibid. 55; ‘in festo Purificationis,’ i.e. Feb. 2nd, prob. anno 1237.

[475] Ibid. 29, 31: in the Phillipps MS. of Eccleston (fol. 75) he is called Wygerius. Jordan’s Chronicle gives 1237 as the date of the visitation, 1238 as the date of the appeal; Analecta Franciscana I, pp. 18-19.

[476] Mon. Franc. I, 30. A chapter was held in London about May 18th, 1238 (Liberate Roll, 22 Hen. III, m. 11), and at Oxford soon after June 30th, 1238 (ibid. m. 15); the latter entry, dated June 30th, runs thus: ‘Rex ballivis suis Oxon’ salutem. Precipimus vobis quod de firma ville nostre Oxonie faciatis habere fratribus minoribus Oxon’ X marcas ad sustentacionem suam et fratrum suorum qui nuper convenient ad capitulum sunm apud Oxon’.’ These are probably the chapters held by the visitor.

[477] Mon. Franc. I, 31.

[478] Ibid. 30.

[479] Ibid.: ‘Igitur cum venissent fratres ad Romam, mox petiverunt ut fratres de cetero in suis locis visitarentur per capitulum generale,’ &c. It is no doubt to these events that Grostete refers in his letters to Gregory IX and Cardinal Rinaldo Conti, Protector of the Order at Rome; Epistolae, LVIII, LIX.

[480] Wadding, Vol. III, _sub anno_.

[481] Mon. Franc. I, 68. The date is fixed by the entry in Liberate Roll, 32 Hen. III, m. 7 (May 16th, 1248).

[482] Mon. Franc. I, 50; probably an offshoot of the errors of Mendicants at Paris, 1243; see Mat. Paris, Chronica Majora, Vol. IV, pp. 280-3; Martene and Durand, Thesaurus, &c., Vol. IV, p. 1686, § 8.

[483] Liberate Roll, _ut supra_: ‘Mandatum est Vicecomiti Oxon’ et Berkshire quod ... cariari faciat unum dolium vini usque Domum fratrum Minorum Oxon’, quibus Rex illud dedit de celario quod fuit Roberti Blundi Vinetarii, et eisdem fratribus in die Capituli sui inveniat victui necessaria de elemosina Regis’ (Woodstock, May 16).

[484] Osney Chron. in Ann. Monast. IV, 318; Peckham, Register, p. 958.

[485] Eulogium Historiarum (continuatio), III, 403; Wadding, IX, 499.

[486] Eulog. Hist. III, 405. The diploma of Innoc. VII (in Wadding, IX, 499) gives the names of the commissioners.

[487] Eulog. Hist. ibid.

[488] Wadding, _ut supra_.

[489] Phillipps, MS. 3119, fol. 87 dorse (printed in Appx. C). This happened before 1269; the names are not given. Perhaps the explanation of the following note to the list of lectors at Oxford in Eccleston’s Chronicle is to be found here: ‘Notandum quod secundum alia chronica quartus magister ... hic non nominatur,’ &c. Mon. Franc. I, 552.

[490] Chron. Majora IV, 279.

[491] ‘Viri literati et scolares,’ ibid.

[492] The proselytising fervour of the Dominicans is well illustrated in the letters of Jordan, Master of the Order, 1223-1236, _Lettres du B. Jourdain de Saxe_ (Paris, 1865), pp. 28, 66, &c.; p. 126: ‘Apud studium Oxoniense, ubi ad praesens eram, spem bonae captionis Dominus nobis dedit’ (A. D. 1230). But Jordan cherished no ill-feeling against the Franciscans: Mon. Franc. I, 22.

[493] Mon. Franc. I, 56.

[494] i.e. Robert, not Roger, as Leland and others have supposed; even Dean Plumptre makes this mistake; Contemp. Review, Vol. II.

[495] Mon. Franc. I, 56. A Papal letter containing the last clause and addressed to the Friars Minors is printed in Wadding, III, 400; the date is ‘X Kal. April. Pontificatus anno xii,’ i.e. 1238.

[496] Mon. Franc. I, 56. See letters of Innocent IV (1244) to the Friars Preachers and Friars Minors in Wadding, III, 433-5. In these the Pope refers to other letters of his forbidding either Order to receive the _obligatos_ of the other; the term is now declared not to include novices during their year of probation.

[497] Fletcher, Black Friars in Oxford, pp. 6-7. John Darlington, one of the King’s nominees in the committee of twenty-four appointed in 1258 to carry out reforms, was a Dominican; Pat. 50 Hen. III, m. 42; Stubbs, Const. Hist. II, 77. The confessors of the English kings were almost invariably Dominicans. Compare also the part which the Oxford Dominicans took in the Piers Gaveston struggle.

[498] Dean Plumptre (Contemp. Rev. II, p. 376 note) identifies the ‘unnamed professor at Paris,’ referred to by Roger Bacon, with Thomas Aquinas, and I am inclined to agree with this suggestion. A passage in Royal MS. 7 F. VII. f. 159 (quoted in Part II, _sub_ Richard of Cornwall) would at first sight seem to identify the unnamed professor with Friar Ric. of Cornwall. But there is no evidence that the latter was quoted as an authority in the schools (like Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes) during his lifetime (Bacon, Op. Ined. p. 30), nor could the statement that ‘he never heard lectures on philosophy and was not educated at Paris or any other school where philosophy flourishes’ (ibid. 31 and 327) apply to Richard (Mon. Franc. I, 39). On the other hand, all the facts mentioned about the unnamed professor coincide with what is known of Thomas Aquinas (Quétif-Echard, I, 271). It may then be assumed with some probability that we have here Bacon’s judgment on his great contemporary. ‘Truly,’ he writes, ‘I praise him more than all the crowd of students, because he is a very studious man, and has seen infinite things, and had expense; and so he has been able to collect much that is useful from the sea of authors,’ but he was fatally handicapped by not going through the regular training (Opera Ined. p. 327). His followers maintain that philosophy as published in his works is complete--that nothing further can be added. ‘These writings,’ Bacon continues, ‘have four sins: the first is infinite puerile vanity; the second is ineffable falsity; the third superfluity of volume ...; the fourth is that parts of philosophy of magnificent utility and immense beauty and without which facts of common knowledge (_quae vulgata sunt_) cannot be understood--concerning which I write to your glory--have been omitted by the author of these works. And therefore there is no utility in those writings, but the greatest injury to wisdom.’

[499] Mullinger, Cambridge, I, 120-1.

[500] Wood, Annals, sub anno 1276, p. 306. Peckham, Reg. III, 852, &c. Kilwardby seems to have generally supported his Order against the Franciscans: see Peckham’s letter to the Prior of the Friars Preachers at Oxford; he is amazed at the ‘cruelty and inconsideration’ of a letter of his predecessor’s, in which the latter apparently made an attack on the Minorites; Register, III, 117-118.

[501] Ibid. III, 866, 898. Wood, Annals, 318 seq.; Annales Monast. IV, 297 seq.

[502] Peckham, Reg. III, 864.

[503] Ibid. 896-901, 943.

[504] Ibid. 867.

[505] Ibid. 852, 866, 901.

[506] Peckham writes: ‘Diversity of opinion among philosophers does not dissolve friendship, but among modern vain-talkers it has passed to the affection of the heart.’ Reg. III, 900.

[507] Ibid. 845-852 (A. D. 1284).

[508] Peckham, Reg. III, 977.

[509] Ibid. 956: cf. 952, the Friars Minors and Preachers have more power than the secular priests, being _literatiores et sanctiores_ than the latter. The Franciscans no doubt contrasted favourably with their neighbour, the Rector of St. Ebbe’s, at this time. In 1284 the Rector of St. Ebbe’s was summoned by the Archdeacon to answer to a charge of repeated adultery with the wife of a parishioner, William le Boltere; it was further alleged that to get the husband out of the way he had twice secured his imprisonment on a false charge; the second time, the unfortunate man died in gaol. Ibid. 855. Perhaps there was also a black sheep among the Oxford Franciscans about this time; an unbeliever might suspect human agency in the ‘memorabile factum’ related in the Lanercost Chronicle, p. 136; q. v. (A. D. 1290).

[510] Reg. I, 99-100: A. D. 1280.

[511] Ibid. III, 838-840: A. D. 1284. But see Archiv f. L. u. K. Gesch. VI. 41, 88.

[512] The passage has been somewhat condensed in translating.

[513] Reg. III, 867.

[514] Reg. III, xcix--summary of Peckham’s Liber Pauperis: ‘nihil possessorie sibi intitulatum; mobile vel immobile, proprium vel commune, nil dico quod divicias saperet, vel delicias redoleret, aut secularem gloriam ministraret.’ Among the questions discussed by Peckham and others at this time was, ‘Utrum habere aliquid in communi minuat de perfectione.’ Archiv für Litt. u. Kirch. Gesch. IV, 46, &c.

[515] Phillipps, MS. 3119, fol. 86, dorse: ‘Veniunt ad nos diversi seculares et religiosi comparacionem inter statum et statum facientes, statum vestrum (i.e. Minorum) extollentes, et nostrum (Praedicatorum) in hoc deprimentes, quod nos peccuniam recipimus, vos autem non recipitis, judicantes nos in hoc minus perfectos mundi contemptores.’

[516] Phillipps, MS. 3119 fol. 86-88: printed in Appx. C.

[517] Wadding, III, p. 130. Cf. Nicholas III’s bull, ‘_Exiit qui seminat_’ (1279), and Clement V’s ‘_Exivi de Paradiso_’ (1312). Peckham held that the ownership remained with the donors; Regist., Vol. III, Preface, p. c (from Peckham’s declaration of the Rule in the ‘_Firmamentum trium ordinum_’).

[518] On the whole subject see Ehrle’s articles in the Archiv für Litt. u. Kirch. Gesch. on ‘Die Spiritualen;’ Vol. IV, p. 46 seq. contains a clear exposition of the basis of the ‘theoretischer Armuthsstreit.’

[519] Lyte, Oxford, p. 118; Shirley, Introd. to Fasc. Zizan. p. xlix; R. L. Poole, Wycliffe, p. 41.

[520] e. g. among the followers of Ockham was Friar Adam Godham; among the realists, Friar John Canon, &c. Cf. Wood, Annals, I, 439.

[521] Lechler, Johann v. Wiclif, I, 218 seq. Fitzralph had been deputed by Clement VI in 1349-1350 to inquire into this dispute; see his Liber de pauperie Salvatoris, edited by R. L. Poole for the Wyclif Society, 1890 (p. 273).

[522] Select English Works of J. Wyclif, I, 76. Cf. ibid. p. 20; among the ‘fals lores’ sown by the friars, Wiclif mentions ‘of þe begginge of Crist.’

[523] Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, p. 121 (7th edition).

[524] Pat. 1 Ric. II, pt. 4, m. 37 (printed in Appx. B). John Welle may have been Warden, though the fact would probably have been stated in the record; I have not been able to find any names of London Wardens between 1368 and 1398; Mon. Franc. I, 521, 523.

[525] This is clearly brought out in the history of the peasant revolt of 1381, if we may trust Walsingham’s account of Jack Straw’s confession (Hist. Angl. II, 10): ‘Postremo regem occidissemus, et cunctos possessionatos, episcopos, monachos, canonicos, rectores insuper ecclesiarum de terra delevissemus. Soli mendicantes vixissent super terram, qui suffecissent pro sacris celebrandis aut conferendis universae terrae.’

[526] ‘Two short treatises,’ &c. p. 35 (cap. 17).

[527] Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. 442; Lechler, I, 217. His principal opponent was also an Oxford man, Friar Roger Conway; see notice of him in