The Grey Friars in Oxford

by A. G. Little

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]