The Grey Friars in Oxford

by A. G. Little

John Arture kept a horse in Oxford in 1528[1846]. In May, 1533, he supplicated for B.D., after fourteen years of study; he was to preach, before Christmas, a sermon at St. Mary’s,

‘another from the pulpit (e suggestu) of St. Paul’s London, and another e pulpito at Westminster[1847].’

In Dec. of the same year he sued Joanna Coper for libel: the scandal about him, and his doings ‘at the sign of Bear’ (May, 1534) have already been noticed. Soon afterwards he was again in trouble, and had to give bail for his appearance whenever he should be required to answer certain charges, which are not specified in the register[1848]. About this time (1534-5) he was appointed warden of the Grey Friars of Canterbury, according to his own account, by the King, ‘against the heart of the provincial[1849].’ There was continual war between himself and the brethren of the house. Each side accused the other of hostility to the King. Arthur wrote that he kept the observance somewhat strict because the friars rebelled against the King and held so stiffly to the Bishop of Rome[1850]. On the other hand a brother whom Arthur had imprisoned brought an accusation of disloyalty against him. This seems to have been founded on a sermon which Arthur was said to have preached in the Church of Herne on Passion Sunday, 1535[1851], in which he ‘blamed these new books and new preachers for misleading the people’ and discouraging fasts, prayers, and pilgrimages, especially to the shrine of St. Thomas.

‘And he said, if so be that St. Thomas were a devil in hell, if the Church had canonized him, we ought to worship him, for you ought to believe us prelates though we preach false.’

Further he did not pray for the King as head of the Church, nor for the Queen. As the result of this charge, Arthur was thrown into prison by Cromwell’s orders, and an Observant, ‘his mortal enemy,’ was made his keeper, while another friar was appointed warden. Fearing to be starved, Arthur escaped to France, and wrote letters from Dieppe to a servant of Cromwell, and to Browne, the Provincial Prior of the Austin Friars, praying for his own recall and urging the punishment of his enemies[1852]. He appears to have returned, if the dates in the Calendars are correct, and to have been again arrested on Aug. 21, 1537 at Cromwell’s command by ‘Cardemaker[1853].’

John Baccheler was vice-warden or sub-warden of Grey Friars in 1529 and in 1534. At the latter date he became one of the sureties for Friar Robert Puller. In June, 1533, supplicated for B.D., after studying twelve years: the grace was conceded on condition of his preaching at St. Mary’s and Paul’s Cross, but it does not appear whether the friar took advantage of it[1854].

Gregory Based, or Basset, B.D., was at one time suspected of heretical leanings and subjected to persecution.

‘For in Bristol (writes Foxe, referring to John Hooker as his authority) he lay in prison long, and was almost famished, for having a book of Martin Luther, called his Questions, which he a long time privily had studied, and for the teaching youth a certain catechism[1855].’

He afterwards abjured, and, to prove his orthodoxy, took a prominent part in the examination and condemnation of Thomas Benet, who was burned at Exeter in 1533[1856]. On December 20, 1534 (?), he came forward as one of the sureties of Friar Robert Puller, for a debt of 25s., in the Chancellor’s Court at Oxford[1857]. He was still alive in Mary’s reign, and is mentioned by Foxe as ‘a rank papist,’ in connexion with the trial of Prest’s wife, a half-witted woman, who was burned as a heretic at Exeter in 1558[1858]. In 1561 a warrant was out for the arrest of ‘Friar Gregory, alias Gregory Basset, a common mass-sayer,’ who was lying hid, it was thought, in Herefordshire[1859].

Robert Beste was summoned before the Chancellor’s Court on September 30, 1530, to answer a charge of ‘incontinence and disturbance of the peace:’ he does not appear to have been convicted. He continued to reside at Oxford during the next few years. In 1539 he became vicar of St. Martin’s in the Fields; he supported the reformation, and was expelled from his vicarage on Mary’s accession. He was afterwards reinstated, and resigned the living before January, 1572[1860].