However, in practice this rule was not very strictly adhered to. Sometimes a friar would pursue his studies with a view to becoming reader to a particular convent[442]; but usually, when an ‘extra-university’ lectureship was founded or fell vacant, the convent applied to the Provincial Minister for any lecturer they chose[443]. Thus about the year 1250, the brethren at Norwich requested that Friar Eustace of Normanville should be appointed as their lecturer[444]. Eustace, after consulting Adam Marsh, declined the office with the Minister’s permission, alleging in excuse his weak health and his want of the necessary training and experience; and Adam informed Robert de Thornham, custodian of the Cambridge ‘Custody,’ in which Norwich was situated, of the decision[445]. The appointments, like those of the Oxford lecturers, were in the hands of the Provincial Chapter, and the various convents obtained letters of recommendation from powerful patrons in support of their candidate[446]. The lecturer was appointed for one year, and could be re-elected by the Provincial Chapter at the request of the convent[447]. Nor was it only to brethren of their own Order that the friars were sent. For many years a Franciscan was theological lecturer to the monks of Christchurch, Canterbury, till at length in 1314 one of his pupils was able to take his place. His teaching, wrote the monks, in grateful recollection of their ‘lector,’
‘in urbe redolet Cantuarie, ac plures nostre congregacionis fratres ipsius sedulos auditores ita sacre scripture aspersione intima fecundavit, quod ipsos ad lectoris officium in scolis nostris subeundum ydoneos reputamus; nos unum de fratribus et commonachis nostris predictis loco dicti fratris Roberti ad hujusmodi ministerium exequendum duximus subrogare[448].’
Thus the friars disseminated over the country, from the universities outwards, the ‘New Learning’ of the thirteenth century.
But the fame of the Franciscan school at Oxford was not only English, but European[449]. Friars were sent thither to study not only from Scotland[450] and Ireland[451], but from France and Aquitaine[452], Italy[453], Spain[454], Portugal[455], and Germany[456]; while many of the Franciscan schools on the Continent, both in universities and elsewhere[457], drew their teachers from England, and, in England, mainly from Oxford. Eccleston mentions a friar who studied with him at Oxford, where his lectures, after some failures, won the admiration of Grostete; afterwards, as his fame increased, he was called by the Minister-General to Lombardy, and enjoyed a great reputation even at the Papal court[458]. Grostete, on his return from the Council of Lyons, was anxious to get Adam Marsh out of the neighbourhood of Paris as soon as possible.
‘It is not safe,’ he writes to the Provincial Minister, ‘to let Adam stay there; for many greatly desire to keep him at Paris, especially now that Alexander of Hales and John de Rupellis are dead; and so both you and I shall be deprived of our greatest comfort[459].’
At another time[460] the General writes to the Provincial Minister of England, requesting him to send English friars to Paris to teach; it was probably on this occasion that Richard of Cornwall[461] left Oxford to win the applause of his hearers at Paris. Peckham received his early education in the schools of his Order at Oxford, and lectured at Paris and at the Court of Rome[462]. Among those whom the Oxford Convent sent to teach in the universities of the Continent, were John Wallensis, William of Gainsborough, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham[463]. All these names belong to the thirteenth or early fourteenth century; from that time onwards international jealousies and wars rendered the connexion of the English universities with Paris far less close, and contemporaneous with this breach was the beginning of the intellectual decline of the Order of St. Francis.
Oxford was the head of a ‘custody,’ which contained, according to the list given by Bartholomew of Pisa[464], seven other convents, namely, Reading, Bedford, Stamford (Linc.), Nottingham, Northampton, Leicester, and Grantham. What exactly the organization of a ‘custodia’ was, it is impossible to determine; it was probably always rather indefinite, and Bartholomew of Pisa points out that in early records the word is used very loosely[465]. Perhaps it was originally intended to hold chapters of custodies[466], as well as of provinces and convents. The Custodian had in early years the right of making and enforcing byelaws in his custody; thus
‘in the custody of Oxford at the head of which Friar Peter was for twelve years, the brethren did not use pillows up to the time of Friar Albert the minister[467].’
Each custody had its special characteristic, Oxford being chiefly remarkable for study[468]. Two Custodians of Oxford, Peter of Tewkesbury and John of Stamford, became Provincial Ministers[469]. At first the Wardens of the convents were appointed by the Custodian[470], but in 1240 the right of election was transferred to the convents themselves, and many friars at the same time demanded the total abolition of the Custodian’s office, on the ground that it was superfluous[471]. It continued however, to exist down to the Dissolution and seems to have implied a general right of supervision; the Custodian was a kind of permanent visitator[472].
Several Provincial Chapters were held at Oxford. It was probably a Conventual, not a Provincial Chapter, before which Grostete, then ‘reading the act at the Friars Minors,’ preached his sermon in praise of poverty and mendicancy[473]. Here Albert of Pisa held his first chapter as Provincial Minister of England, and announced the stern principles which were to guide his government[474]. Soon after this Elias instituted a severe visitation throughout the Order, and sent Friar Wygmund or Wygred, a German, as visitor to England in 1237 or 1238[475]. He held chapters at London, Southampton, Gloucester, and Oxford[476]. At the latter place the Warden, Friar Eustace de Merc, was bitterly attacked and excluded a day and a half from the chapter, though his innocence seems to have been eventually established[477]. The inquisitorial methods adopted by the visitor raised a storm of opposition throughout the province, which found expression, on the completion of the visitation, in a Provincial Chapter held at Oxford in the summer or autumn of 1238[478]. Here a solemn appeal to Rome was formulated, and exemption claimed from all visitations, except those authorized by the General Chapter[479]. The result of this and similar appeals from the Order was the final deposition of Elias by the Pope on the 15th of May, 1239[480].