Yet St. Frideswide's does not seem to have been so great a power in educational matters as its position would have warranted. In fact, most of the other orders were ahead of the Augustinian Regulars in this matter, for we do not hear of their doing anything much until the fifteenth century, when St. Mary's College near Northgate Street was an Augustinian establishment. It was the new orders, the Black Friars (Dominicans) and the Grey Friars (Franciscans), who did so much for the educational advance of Oxford. The Franciscan schoolmen, especially, gave the University a European reputation, for Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and William Occam were trained by them. Cardinal Wolsey, though he did much harm to St. Frideswide's church, did at least make the place a great educational centre. In one indirect way we find that the Priory helped to attend to the scholars' interests in the thirteenth century. "Owing to the general poverty," says Mr. Boase, "charitable people founded _chests_, from which loans might be made to poor scholars. Grostête began the system in 1240 by issuing an ordinance regulating St. Frideswide's Chest, which received the fines paid by citizens; and we hear on the whole of about two dozen of these charitable funds, amounting in all to nearly 2000 marks. The money was lent out on security of books, plate, or other property, and it was, in fact, a pawnbroking business which charged no interest." The money accruing to the University was placed in a chest at St. Frideswide's, when the borrower was required to deposit some pledge--a book or a cup, or a piece of clothing. Pledges not redeemed within a year were sold by public auction. As time went on, private bequests were added to the Frideswide chest, to the great relief, no doubt, of the scholars, who were as poor as could be. The Fair of St. Frideswide was another useful institution connected with the Priory, for in early days the fairs not only afforded much innocent amusement, but they also served to mark the seasons of the year, and were of great practical value in the domestic economy of the people. St. Frideswide's Fair lasted for seven days, and during that time the keys of the city passed from the mayor to the prior, and the town courts were closed in favour of the Piepowder Court, held by the steward of the Priory for the redress of all disorders committed during the fair. By Stuart times the Fair had fallen almost to nothing, but its memory is still kept up by the annual cakestall in St. Aldate's. One of the strongest Jewries in England existed in Oxford, so the chest was a useful form of charity in the days when Jews were the only money-lenders, and it was found necessary to pass a law preventing the Hebrews of Oxford from charging over 43 per cent, on loans to scholars. In 1268 St. Frideswide's provided a curious proof of the strong protection which the Jews enjoyed till their expulsion from England for four centuries in 1290.