The Grey Friars in OxfordLittle, A. G. (Andrew George)
History
The Grey Friars in Oxford
Little, A. G. (Andrew George)
Franciscans -- Great Britain
The cloisters, of which we find no mention till the dissolution, were no
doubt situated on the south of the church, round ‘Penson’s Gardens.’
Whether the friars were buried in the cloisters, the garth, the
chapter-house, or ‘the cemetery of the Friars Minors,’ in which John
Dongan was interred in 1464[172] or sometimes in one place, sometimes in
another, is unknown. On the east of the cloisters would be the
chapter-house[173]; over it, and joining the church, a dormitory[174]. On
the south of the cloisters, opposite the church, stood the refectory. It
is possible, but not probable, that the long narrow building stretching
down towards Trill Mill Stream, which is marked in old maps of
Oxford[175], was the refectory: Bridge Street marks the site. The library
may have been on the west side of the cloisters, but no hint remains as to
the building or its position, while the contents may be more appropriately
treated elsewhere. The warden’s house is equally unknown; he may perhaps
merely have had rooms set apart in some one of the larger buildings[176],
as was probably the case with the vice-warden[177]. From the Lanercost
Chronicle we learn that in the thirteenth century the ‘master of the
schools’ had a chamber of his own[178]; and Wiclif tells us that in his
time
‘Capped Friars, that beene called Maisters of Diuinitie, haue there
chamber and service as Lords or Kings[179].’
Ample accommodation for guests was a marked feature in most religious
houses, and there is no reason to suppose that the Oxford Franciscan
Friary formed an exception to a custom which, while it excited some
animosity against the apostles of poverty, tended to ensure the favour and
secure the alms of the rich[180].
The convent was supplied with good water by a conduit of leaden pipes,
which, according to Wadding, was made in the thirteenth century by a
magnate at his own expense, and extended many miles under the watersheds
of the Isis and Cherwell[181]. In 1246-7 we hear that the Friars Preachers
and Minors had appropriated many places on the Thames, and had made there
‘ditches and walls and other things[182].’ Lastly, there were three gates:
one in Freren Street[183], perhaps an entrance to the church through
‘Church Place;’ another in St. Ebbe’s Street, opposite Beef Lane[184],
where St Ebbe’s Churchyard now extends; and a third--their principal
entrance, which existed in Wood’s time--in Littlegate Street, apparently
where the latter is now joined by Charles Street[185].
This completes the list of conventual as distinct from the farm buildings,
and if the account is meagre and unsatisfactory, we may try to console
ourselves with William of Nottingham’s retort, when a friar threatened to
accuse him before the Minister General ‘because the place at London was
not enclosed:’
‘And I will answer to the General, that I did not enter the Order to
build walls[186].’
CHAPTER III.
FRANCISCAN SCHOOLS AT OXFORD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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