The Grey Friars in Oxford

by A. G. Little

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].