Probably this refers to the original chapel. It had a choir where the brethren attended and celebrated divine service[131], and at, or over, the door of which stood a crucifix, or wooden cross[132]. It was here, in the choir before the altar, that Agnellus was buried in a ‘leaden box,’ as became the _zelator paupertatis_[133]. The chapel was pulled down when the new church was finished[134]. Under the auspices of Agnellus rose their first school, which was apparently the finest of their early buildings[135]. Whether this was afterwards enlarged, or whether new schools were built on the same site or elsewhere, there is no longer any means of deciding. These houses were situated within the wall, and it was not till the increase of the ‘area’ between 1240 and 1250 that building on a large scale was commenced between the wall and Trill Mill Stream[136]. The tendency to build was strenuously resisted by the stricter party among the friars--the party which upheld the early traditions of the Order. Eccleston relates how an Oxford friar appeared after death to the custodian and warned him that, ‘if the friars were not damned for their excess in building, they would at any rate be severely punished[137].’ An obscure passage in a letter of Adam Marsh probably refers to the same tendency; even novices, he laments, are taught to neglect the things of the spirit ‘for flesh and blood, for mud and walls, for wood and stone, for any kind of worldly gain[138].’ The opposition of the older generation was, however, unavailing, and a ‘stately and magnificent[139]’ convent began to rise. But of the new friary, too, there are but scanty notices. No English king bestowed on the house of Franciscans at Oxford that loving care which Henry III bestowed on the Minorite Church at Reading, or Edward II on the Dominican Church which rose over the tomb of his ill-fated favourite at Langley. From royal grants we learn that building was going on at the Grey Friars of Oxford in 1240, when ten oaks were given to them by the King for timber[140]. In 1245 (July 7th), ‘the Sheriff of Berkshire was ordered to give to the Friars Minors of Oxford for the works of their houses sixty shillings instead of six oaks which the King gave them before[141];’ and a further grant of six oaks for timber in 1272 shows that the operations were of a protracted nature[142]. From similar sources we find that the Church, which was dedicated to St. Francis, was in process of erection in February, 1246[143], and February, 1248[144]. At the latter date the friars are again permitted to