The Grey Friars in OxfordLittle, A. G. (Andrew George)
History
The Grey Friars in Oxford
Little, A. G. (Andrew George)
Franciscans -- Great Britain
‘at the time of his death (1396) he altered his will in that part in
which he bequeathed his body to be buried in the chancel of the church
of the Friars Minors at Oxford, and willed and also bequeathed his
body to be buried in the Conventual Church of Westminster where our
lord the King shall dispose[163].’
William Lord Lovell, by a will dated 18 March, 1454/5, made provision
‘to be buried at the Grayfreris of Oxenford in suche place as I have
appoynted[164].’
The wills of less distinguished persons occasionally contain information
as to the interior of the church. In 1430 Robert Keneyshame, Bedel of the
University, willed to be buried in the Franciscan Church,
‘in the midst between the two altars beneath the highest cross in the
body of the church[165].’
James Hedyan, bachelor in both laws and principal of Eagle Hall, was
buried in the nave[166]. Agnes, wife of Michael Norton, was in 1438 buried
‘in the Conventual Church of the Friars Minors of Oxford before the
image of the blessed Mary the Virgin of Pity[167].’
And in 1526 Richard Leke, ‘late bruer of Oxford,’ desired
‘to be buried within the Graye ffreres in Oxford before the awter
where the first masse is daily vsed to be saide[168].’
But more honoured than any of these was the ‘fair stone sepulchre[169]’ in
which the body of Agnellus, the only Provincial Minister known to have
been buried at Oxford, found its final resting place. For the shrine of
Agnellus possessed all the fascination of miraculous association and
miraculous power. When the friars, many years after his death, went in the
night to remove the body from the original chapel before its demolition,
‘they found the little leaden box in which it lay, together with the
grave, full of the purest oil, but the body itself with the vestments
uncorrupted and smelling most sweetly[170].’
Here, too, we are told, was the tomb of one greater than Agnellus; but if
the statement of John Rouse, that Roger Bacon was buried among the
Franciscans at Oxford, is anything more than a tradition, it was perhaps
not in the church, but in the common burial place of the brethren of the
convent, that the Warwick antiquary found his grave[171].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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