The divinity lecturer to the Franciscans or ‘Master of the Schools[208],’ as he was also called, had, as such, no status in the University. It is even doubtful whether he counted as a ‘regent master,’ unless he also lectured in the University Schools. Thus Adam Marsh protested against being required by the Masters to subscribe a new statute on the ground ‘that he had three years ago retired from the office of teaching in their University[209].’ But in a letter written shortly before this, and referring to the same subjects, he mentions that he was ‘lecturing on Holy Scripture’ to the friars[210]. The position of the _lector_ was, in fact, not unlike that of a college tutor, except that he was always a man of proved ability and long experience. To the friars he was far more than a theological lecturer; he was a trusted friend, on whose advice and sympathy and help they might reckon in all the conduct of life. Such at least was the tradition established by Grostete and carried on by Adam Marsh[211]. Both of them men versed in affairs of state, both men of acknowledged weight in the counsels of the realm[212], and fearless opponents of illegality and oppression, they not only trained the friars in theology and philosophy, but taught them to comprehend the social needs of the age. ‘I return your lordship,’ writes Adam to Grostete[213], ‘the breviate which you wrote, “_Of the rule of a kingdom and a tyranny_,” as you sent it, sealed with the seal of the Earl of Leicester;’ and Simon de Montfort had frequent consultations with the friar about his government of Gascony[214]. It was from their daily intercourse with men like these that the Oxford Franciscans became, if not the leaders, the spokesmen of the constitutional movement of the thirteenth century[215]. The corpse of Simon de Montfort was buried by the Grey Friars of Evesham, and it is probably to the Franciscan school that the Latin poems in his honour are to be ascribed[216], as well as the form of prayer addressed to him:-- ‘Sis pro nobis intercessor Apud Deum, qui defensor In terris extiteras[217].’ The Oxford Franciscans regarded him as a saint and a martyr, though he died excommunicate, and testified to the miracles which he wrought[218]. The _lector_ had also his _socius_[219], a younger friar who acted as his secretary, and whose time was almost entirely at his disposal. The position of both _lector_ and _socius_ will be best illustrated by two extracts from the letters of Adam Marsh. In the first of these[220], addressed to the Provincial, he writes that he has found Friar A. de Hereford, whom the Provincial had assigned to him as his _socius_, affectionate and of good character, docile and well-read, and far more capable than ‘some of those who are appointed by the counsel of the discreet to instruct in Holy Scripture.’