Eventually the case was submitted to the arbitration of William Clare the elder, and Edmund Irishe, bailiffs of Oxford, with the addition of a third if necessary, each party binding itself to abide by the decision of the majority under penalty of 40_s._, in case of disagreement, to be paid to the party willing to accept the judgment. While these and similar actions were instituted by Brian in fulfilment of the duties of his position, he was undoubtedly engaged in others of a private nature. At one time he acts as attorney for a priest[610]. At another he is charged with wrongfully keeping a knife, the property of _dominus_ Galfred Coper[611]. In 1531[612] he had a dispute with his tailor and appealed to the law, alleging ‘that, whereas he had given to William Gos[613], tailor, three yards and three quarters of woollen cloth to make him a habit, the said Gos had purloined one quarter of a yard, and that in consequence his clothes were too short (_nimis brevem et succinctam_).’ Brian having declared on oath that he had supplied the above-mentioned amount of cloth, Gos promised to give him 14_d._ as satisfaction for the missing quarter of a yard. But later in the day he again appeared and charged the friar with perjury. After some more recriminations an agreement was come to out of court, and we hear no more of the habit. That his litigious spirit should sometimes have brought Friar Brian into trouble we cannot wonder. Several times in the latter part of his career he was in danger of ‘bodily injury;’ in 1532[614] he made application to have Robert Holder bound over to keep the peace, and in 1534 the judge ordered that James Penerton should not be released from Bocardo till he found sufficient sureties that he would not inflict bodily harm on Friar Brian or his friends (_familiaribus_)[615]. The same year he complained of having been libelled by one Giles Mawket, a carpenter (_fabro lignario_), in the parish of St. Ebbe’s[616]. This was probably a slander on his character, which was not above suspicion. In 1535[617] ‘a woman of Radley named Anna’ asserted in the Commissary’s court that she was with child by Thomas Denson, Bachelor of Laws: ‘qui Denson (as the record puts it, reciting the evidence of Joanna Cowper, another woman of ill-fame) egre tulit ut extraneus quisque familiaritate dicte Anne uteretur; because (it is added in the margin) he tok fryer Bryan wrastelyng w{th} her in a morning[618].’ The records of the Chancellor’s court contain charges of immorality against two other Friars Minors[619]. The first was ‘_dompnus_’ Robert Beste[620], who was summoned before the court together with a scholar of Broadgates Hall, ‘on grave suspicion of incontinence and disturbance of the peace.’ ‘Then the judge commanded ‘_dompnus_’ Beste to go to the prison house, namely le Bocardo, and remain there for half-an-hour’--