The Grey Friars in OxfordLittle, A. G. (Andrew George)
History
The Grey Friars in Oxford
Little, A. G. (Andrew George)
Franciscans -- Great Britain
65. =Thomas Oterborne= can hardly have written the chronicle generally
ascribed to him. The chronicle itself bears no marks of having been
written by a Franciscan; even the notices of the Order given in Walsingham
and the Eulogium Historiarum are sometimes omitted, and usually shortened,
in the so-called Otterbourne. But apart from this, the evidence of dates
is fairly conclusive: the chronicle, as edited by Hearne, leaves off
abruptly in the year 1420, and Hearne puts Otterbourne’s death at 1421.
Pits and Wood suppose from MSS. which end in 1411 that the writer died in
that year. Hearne says
‘there are not wanting MSS. which bring the history hardly beyond
Edward III.’
But even assuming the existence of such MSS. it is practically impossible
that they can have been the work of the Franciscan doctor. Thomas
Oterborne must have lectured at Oxford before 1350. It is true that the
last nine names of lectors given in the list are in a more recent hand
than the earlier ones; but the names of Went and Oterborne are in the same
writing, and there can be no reasonable doubt that they were
contemporaries. The dates of Oterborne’s two immediate successors at
Oxford are unknown[1198], and the list of lectors here comes to an end. We
cannot therefore know whether there were any more lectors before Simon
Tunstede. Assuming that he was the sixty-eighth lector, we may naturally
conclude that the sixty-fifth read several years before him, i.e. several
years before 1351 when Simon was ‘regent among the Minorites at
Oxford[1199].’ It is therefore most probable that Thomas was reader not
later than 1345. The historian was perhaps the Thomas Otterburn who became
rector of Chingford in 1393 and was ordained priest in 1394[1200].
66. =John Valeys=[1201] was perhaps the Friar John Wells who took a
prominent part in the disputed election to the Chancellorship in 1349, as
a supporter of John Wyllyot, fellow of Merton, whose conduct seems to have
been of a peculiarly riotous and lawless character[1202]. He may possibly
be the John Welle, S.T.P. and Friar Minor[1203], who was robbed by his
servant in London in 1377; some curious details about this affair will be
found in Appendix B.
67. =Richard Malevile= of the London Custody (c. 1350?); this name is
added in a still later hand.
CHAPTER III.
FRANCISCANS WHO STUDIED IN THE CONVENT AT OXFORD, OR HAD SOME OTHER
CONNEXION WITH THE TOWN OR THE UNIVERSITY.
=Agnellus= or =Angnellus of Pisa= was custodian of Paris before becoming
first Provincial of England[1204]. He is said to have been made Provincial
by St. Francis in 1219[1205]; the order as given by Francis a S.
Clara[1206] is as follows:
‘Ego frater Franciscus de Assisio Minister Generalis praecipio tibi
fratri Agnello de Pisa per obedientiam, ut vadas ad Angliam, et ibi
facias officium Ministeratus. Vale. Frater Franciscus de Assisio.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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