‘in which he confirmed the provincial constitutions concerning poverty in living and buildings (_de parsimonia et paupertate aedificiorum_). And when he gave the friars the option of confirming or deposing the Provincial Minister (W. of Nottingham), they unanimously asked that he might be confirmed[481].’ Eccleston states that in the same chapter the Minister-General ‘recalled the brethren to unity who had begun to surpass the rest in singular opinions[482].’ For this chapter the King provided one cask of wine and the necessaries of life[483]. In 1289 three of the four Orders celebrated their Provincial Chapters at Oxford, that of the Minorites taking place on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin (Sept. 8)[484]. No account of the proceedings remains. The next Provincial Chapter at Oxford about which we have any information was held in 1405, at a critical period in the history of the Order in England. In 1404 ‘a great and very scandalous schism’ arose among the Franciscans owing to the arbitrary and unconstitutional conduct of the Provincial, John Zouch[485]. The friars appealed to the Protector of the Order, the Cardinal-bishop of Sabina, who appointed Friars Nicholas Fakenham and John Mallaert commissioners, with power to depose the Provincial, if necessary. The commissioners deposed him in his absence, called a chapter at Oxford on May 3rd[486], and proceeded to elect a successor. The Vicar of the Provincial forbade the friars to attend the chapter. ‘And the commissioners prayed the King to order the friars to assemble at the chapter at Oxford for the reformation of their religion; and they obtained royal briefs about this matter[487].’ John Zouche was afterwards reinstated by the Protector of the Order, but does not seem to have ever made good his authority over the English Province[488]. CHAPTER VI. RIVALRY BETWEEN THE ORDERS: ATTACKS ON THE FRIARS. Rivalry between Friars Preachers and Minors: proselytism.--Politics and Philosophy.--Peckham and the Oxford friars.--Evangelical Poverty.--Contrast between theory and practice.--Attack on the friars by Richard Fitzralph.--Charge of stealing children.--Wiclif’s early relations to the friars.--His attack on them in his later years.--Charges of gross immorality made not by Wiclif, but by his followers.--The University and the friars: summary of events in 1382.--Unpopularity of the friars in the fifteenth century.--Foreign Minorites expelled from Oxford.--Conspiracies against Henry IV; part taken by Oxford Franciscans.--Conventual and Observant friars.