It was inevitable that a spirit of rivalry should exist between the two great Mendicant Orders; and the rivalry soon developed into antagonism. In the thirteenth century one lecturer to the Friars Minors at Oxford was removed from the convent, another was suspended from lecturing, for causing offence to the Friars Preachers and at their request[489]. An ‘enormous scandal of discord,’ in Matthew Paris’ words[490], arose in the year 1243, each of the two Orders claiming precedence of the other. Though there is little direct evidence on the point, there is no doubt that Oxford was one of the chief scenes of conflict. The controversy was carried on by ‘men of education and scholars[491],’ and some details of it are preserved in the pages of Eccleston. It arose from the proselytising tendencies of the two Orders[492]. The Dominicans, according to Eccleston[493], ‘were wont to profess on the day of their entry, if they liked, as did Friar R. Bacun[494] of good memory.’ Friar Albert of Pisa, when Provincial Minister of England, obtained a bull from Gregory IX prohibiting this practice: ‘the Friars Preachers were not to bind anyone so as to prevent him entering any Order he chose, nor were the friars to admit their novices to profession till the year of probation had been completed[495].’ The Dominicans on their side claimed similar privileges, and obtained a bull from Innocent IV to the effect that ‘no Friar Minor should receive those bound to them (_suos obligatos_); if he did so, he should be excommunicated _de facto_; and they consented to the same privilege about those bound to us.’ Eccleston complains that the Dominicans made such good use of the bull that ‘they let scarcely any one go;’ and regards this equitable arrangement as a great hardship to his Order. ‘But not long,’ he adds, ‘did this tribulation last;’ Friars William of Nottingham and Peter of Tewkesbury obtained from Innocent IV a revocation of his constitution[496]. The antagonism between the two Orders did not stop here, and in many of the great questions of the day they are found on opposite sides. The Oxford Franciscans, as we have already seen, were among the staunchest supporters of Simon de Montfort; the Oxford Dominicans seem to have sided with the King. The famous Mad Parliament, which Henry III summoned to Oxford in 1258, met in the convent of the Black Friars, and Prince Edward and his retainers stayed there before the battle of Lewes[497].