and his brethren followed this principle in their preaching. ‘Their sermons,’ says Brewer, ‘are full of pithy stories and racy anecdotes; now introducing some popular tradition or legend, now enforcing a moral by some fable or allegory[439].’ It has often occasioned surprise that the generation which saw the rise of poetry in England, saw also the rise of English prose--that, in a word, Wiclif was the contemporary of Chaucer. When we remember that, for a century and a half, men versed in all the learning of their time had been constantly preaching to the people in the vulgar tongue in every part of the country, we shall see less cause to wonder at the vigorous language, the clear and direct expression, of ‘the father of English prose.’ For the learning of the friars was not confined to the Universities[440]. To the Franciscans Oxford was more than a place for study; it was the centre of a great educational organization which extended throughout the land. ‘The gift of wisdom,’ to quote Eccleston’s words, ‘so overflowed in the English province, that before the deposition of Friar William of Nottingham, there were thirty lecturers in England who solemnly disputed, and three or four who lectured without disputation. For he had assigned in the Universities students for each convent, to succeed to the lecturers on their death or removal[441].’ However, in practice this rule was not very strictly adhered to. Sometimes a friar would pursue his studies with a view to becoming reader to a particular convent[442]; but usually, when an ‘extra-university’ lectureship was founded or fell vacant, the convent applied to the Provincial Minister for any lecturer they chose[443]. Thus about the year 1250, the brethren at Norwich requested that Friar Eustace of Normanville should be appointed as their lecturer[444]. Eustace, after consulting Adam Marsh, declined the office with the Minister’s permission, alleging in excuse his weak health and his want of the necessary training and experience; and Adam informed Robert de Thornham, custodian of the Cambridge ‘Custody,’ in which Norwich was situated, of the decision[445]. The appointments, like those of the Oxford lecturers, were in the hands of the Provincial Chapter, and the various convents obtained letters of recommendation from powerful patrons in support of their candidate[446]. The lecturer was appointed for one year, and could be re-elected by the Provincial Chapter at the request of the convent[447]. Nor was it only to brethren of their own Order that the friars were sent. For many years a Franciscan was theological lecturer to the monks of Christchurch, Canterbury, till at length in 1314 one of his pupils was able to take his place. His teaching, wrote the monks, in grateful recollection of their ‘lector,’