Franciscans and the Protestant revolution in England

Front matter

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COFnUGKr DEPOSIIS

JOANNES DUNS SCOTUS, 0. F. M.

Foreword

In the following pages, an attempt is made to relate the story of the English Franciscans during the first century of the Protestant Revolution. Among the causes commonly assigned, even by Catholic historians, for the rapid spread 'of Protestantism in Europe is the inactivity and degeneracy of the so-called old Orders at the time when the conflict began. This serious charge loses much of its significance if we remember that for forty years these old Orders bore the brunt of the attack against the overwhelming forces of the enemy. The fact, too, that more than 150 members of these old Orders played a prominent role in the Council of Trent shows that their laxism and indifference could not have been so great after all. As to the Franciscan Order in particular, it may suffice to call to mind that of the above-mentioned 150 religious 85 were sons of St. Francis, and that, furthermore, between the years 1520 and 1620, more than 500 Franciscans shed their blood for the faith in the various countries of Europe.

To disprove the above charge in the case of the Franciscans in England, and at the same time to afford wholesome reading for all admirers of St. Francis and his Order, the present volume is placed before the public. As history clearly testifies, the popular mind of England in the beginning of the religious upheaval was deeply imbued with the truly Catholic spirit of the great Saint of Assisi. And perhaps nowhere at the time were his followers of the First Order so highly esteemed by all classes of society as in England. They enjoyed the confidence of the king not less than of the masses. Their life and activity were intimately bound up with the affairs of the higher circles and with the

FOREWORD

needs and aspirations of the lower classes. The former sought their favor and support, while the latter looked to them for guidance and consolation.

The writer has endeavored to recount their labors and sufferings for the Catholic faith in England in a popular way and with due regard to the postulates of modern historical criticism. Without claiming this to be the first treatment of the subject in English, he would designate as the special feature of his work the fact that it is a critical compilation of practically everything so far written on this matter. From the bibliography the reader can form an idea of the time and labor expended in gathering, sifting, and arranging the available material. The writer shall deem himself amply rewarded for his pains if his work, be it ever so imperfect, will help to make better known one of the many glorious chapters of the history of the Order to which he has the privilege of belonging.

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, October 4, 1919.

F. B. S.

Chapter I Introductory

Fr, William of England, a disciple of St. Fra/ncis — The first Franciscans arrive in England: Fr. Agnellus of Pisa and his eight companions — The first friaries: Canterbury, London, Oxford, Northampton, Cambridge — Marvelous expansion of the province^Character of the English Franciscans — Two remarkable features regarding the development of the province — Influence with the masses — In the service of State and Church — In the field of letters.

To realize the terrible calamity that befell the English Franciscans during the first century of the Protestant Revolution, the reader must know something of their history prior to the outbreak of the storm. For this reason, we shall devote the first chapter of our narrative to an account of their arrival on English soil and of the subsequent development and activity of the province. Though necessarily brief and incomplete, it will show how, throughout the centuries, the sons of St. Francis, by their sanctity and learning as well as by their zeal for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the realm, enjoyed the confidence of the English nation, so that in the beginning of the upheaval they were the most popular and influential religious in England.

Among the first disciples and companions of St. Francis was Fr. William, an Englishman by birth. ^ He was esteemed by his brethren both for his learning and for his extraordinary piety. His soul had deeply imbibed the spirit of

1. The Martyrologium Franoiscarmm of Fr. Arturus commemorates him on March 7, in these terms : "At Assist In Umbria, Blessed William, Confessor, a man of extraordinary perfection, who for his sanctity and miracles was widely known in life and after death."

the Seraphic Father, and it was very likely owing to his burning zeal for immortal souls, that the newly founded Franciscan Order found its way to England. During the second general chapter, which was held at Whitsuntide, in 1219, at Our Lady of the Angels, or Porziuncola, near Assisi, Fr. William petitioned St. Francis to let also England share the blessings of his new foundation. Accordingly, the Saint directed Blessed Agnellus of Pisa, who was then custos of the French Franciscans and guardian of the friary in Paris, to undertake the expedition to England. He vested him with the authority of provincial and drew up an obedience which read :

To Brother Agnellus of Pisa of the Tuscan Province of the Order of Minors, Brother Francis of Assisi, Minister General, though unworthy, salutation. By the merit of wholesome obedience, I command thee to go to England and there to exercise the office of Minister Provincial. Farewell.^

Trusting in Divine Providence and fortified with the blessing of his holy Father, Blessed Agnellus accompanied by eight friars set out for the new mission field. Of his companions, Fr. Richard of Ingworth was a priest, Fr. Richard of Devonshire a cleric in minor orders, and Fr. William of Esseby a youthful but very pious novice ; these three were, like their leader. Englishmen by birth. The other five selected for the expedition were lay brothers ; viz., FF. Henry of Cervise, Lawrence of Beauvais, William of Florence, Melioratus, and James Ultramontanus.^ After staying a few months with their brethren in France, the little band of nine friars continued their journey to Normandy and received a hearty welcome from the monks of Fescamp. Supplied by these with the necessary means,

2. In Ms Annales Minorum (an. 1219, num. 32), Wadding remarks that as a perpetual memorial of the founding of the English Province, the Franciscan friary of Mount La Verna at his time preserved a picture of Blessed Agnellus of Pisa holding his obedience in his hands. The saintly friar died in 1232 (1233) ; he was enrolled among the Blessed by Pope Leo XIII. The Franciscan Order celebrates his feast on May 7,

3. Eccleston, Liber de Adventu Minorum iti Angliam in Analecta Franoiscana. Vol. I, p. 218.

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa they embarked for Dover in Kent, where they landed, probably on May 3, 1220.^ Thence they proceeded to Canterbury, about ten miles northwest, and knocked on the portals

4. Historians do not agree as to the date of the arrival of the first Franciscans in England. Eccleston, a member of the Order who lived about the year 1340, says that they arrived on September 10, 1224. "In the year of the Lord 1224," he begins his narrative, "in the time of the Lord Pope Honorius, namely in the same year in which the Rule of St Francis was approved by him, in the eighth year of the Lord King Henry, son of John, on Tuesday after the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, which that year fell on Sunday, the Friars Minor first arrived in England." The precision and accuracy with which the statement is made (September 8, the day of the feast, was actually a Sunday in 1224) would settle the question once for all, as it did for Leland, Wood, and most English historians, were it not that other writers of repute and a number of indirect evidences speak against the date. Thus Wadding Annales Minorum (an. 1220, num. 58) maintains that the first friars arrived on May 3, 1220, adducing Marianus of Florence (d. 1537) as his authority. Others who assign the year 1220 are Matthew Paris (d. 1259), Marcus of Lisbon (d. 1^91), Francis Harold (d. 1685), and Parkinson^ (d. 1728). Some historians assert that the friars arrived about four years after the coronation of King Henry III, Thereby they by no means settle the question, because the King was crowned twice, in 1216 and in 1220. Matthew Paris, who lived in England at this time as chronologist of the King, declares, under the year 1243, that the Franciscans "began to build their first habitations scarce four and twenty years ago (See Parkinson, Antiquities of the English Franciscans, p. 6).

Again, in 1260, St. Bonaventure /Irew up an official list of the provinces till then founded in the Order, in which, apparently observing the order of their foundation, he places among those on this side of the Alps the one in France first and the one in England second (See Annales Minorum, an. 1260, num. 14). This seems to show, as Parkinson points out (ibidem, p. 7), that the Order had a province in England before 1221, since that year others were erected. Furthermore, in Glassberger's Chronica (Analecta Franciscana, Vol. II), we read on page 28: "At the general chapter which was held that same year (1223) at St. Mary of Porziuncola, Fr. Caesarius was relieved of his office as minister (provincial of Germany), which he had held for two years, and Fr. Albert of Pisa, who had just returned from England, was appointed in his stead." (See also Parkinson, ibidem, pp. 11, 65.) Finally, we find that in two instances Eccleston apparently contradicts his statement as to the arrival of the first friars in England. Regarding Fr. Lawrence of Beauvais, one of the companions of Blessed Agnellus, he relates the following {Analecta Franciscana, Vol. I, p. 219) : "He in the beginning (of the province) labored unceasingly according to the Rule ; and having later returned to Blessed Francis, he merited frequently to see him and to be consoled by his conversations ; finally, the holy Father most freely gave him his tunic, and having delighted him with his sweetest blessing sent him back to England." Now, St. Francis died on October 3, 1226. Hence, if Fr. Lawrence came to England in 1224, then all that is told of him must have taken place within the brief space of two years. Again, Eccleston concludes the second chapter of his narrative with the words : "It is worthj' of note that in the second year of the administration of Fr. Peter (of Tewkesbury), the fifth minister of England, namely in the thirty-second year since the arrival of the brethren in England, there were in the English province 1,242 friars living in 49 places." Although the old chroniclers do not give the years of Fr. Peter's administration. Father Cuthbert (The Friars and how they came to England, p. 141) assumes that the year suggested In Eccleston's note is 1251. If this is correct, then it is clear that the first Franciscans did not arrive in England in 1224.

of the Benedictine priory of the Holy Trinity. The monks had probably been apprised of their coming, since the friars found no difficulty in identifying themselves and receiving food and lodging.

Leaving his brethren at the priory, Fr. Agnellus went to the king and, as was required at the time, presented the credentials drawn up and signed by the Pope.^ Henry III had already heard of St. Francis and of the holy life he and his followers were leading. Hence he received the provincial with every mark of esteem and readily permitted the friars to settle in Canterbury. Thanking the Benedictines for their kindness, the Franciscans took up their temporary abode in the Poor Priests' Hospice, where they remained till the following September.

In that month, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, who ever after proved a devoted friend and protector of the friars, raised the provincial to the dignity of the priesthood and conferred subdeaconship on Fr. Richard of Devonshire. Soon after these ordinations. Blessed Agnellus commissioned Fr. Richard of Ingworth and Fr. Richard of Devonshire with two lay brothers, FF. Henry and Melioratus, to establish houses in London and Oxford, while he with the four remaining friars remained at Canterbury, in order to begin the erection of the first friary on English soil.^ Alexander, the master of the Poor Priests' Hospice, had presented them with a plot of ground and urged the citizens to contribute toward the erection of

5. The credentials which St. Francis obtained from the Pope read : "Honorius, Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to Archbishops, Abbots, Deans, Archdeacons, and other prelates of church — Whereas Our beloved sons, Brother Francis and his companions of the life and institute of Friars Minor, despising the vanities of the world, have made choice of a way of life deservedly approved by the Roman Church, and sowing the seeds of the word of God, are traveling after the example of the Apostles through divers nations : We entreat you all, and exhort you in the Lord and command you, by the Apostolic letters addressed to you, that, whensoever members of said institute bearing these presents shall think fit to come to you, you receive them as Catholics and true believers ; and that, for the honor of God and the respect you owe to Us, you show them favor and courtesy. Given at Rome on the third day of the ides of June, in the third year of Our Pontificate." — Annales Minorum, Vol. I, an. 1219, num. 28.

6. Our chief sources of information regarding the erection of the first friaries are Eccleston and Parkinson.

a house for them. His appeal was not in vain, and soon a neat little friary was ready to receive the sons of St. Francis. From Antony Wood, the Oxford antiquary, we learn that the friars held this place in the name of the Canterbury Corporation, since their Rule forbade them to possess temporalities. In this house, which was later dedicated to St. Francis, the friars lived for almost fifty years, laboring for the spiritual welfare of their generous benefactors and educating their boys in the adjoining school. In 1270, John Diggs, a civil official of Canterbury, had the friars take up their abode on Bennewith, an island in the double channel of the river Stour. It was this friary which late in the fifteenth century was given to the reformed members of the province, and which they inhabited tiU the time of its suppression under Henry VIII.

When Fr. Richard with his three companions arrived in London, the people vied with one another in giving them a hearty reception. After spending a fortnight with the Dominicans at Holborn,^ the Franciscans went to Cornhill, where John Travers, Sheriff of London, had procured and fitted out a house for their use. So greatly were the citizens edified at the charming simplicity and self-denial of the friars, that they soon had a more spacious and comfortable home to offer them. John Irwin, a prosperous merchant of the city and afterwards a lay brother of the Order, presented them with a tract of land in the Shambles of St. Nicholas, a place where the poor and destitute were especially numerous. Here in the space of five years, through the charity of the people and the city officials, a church and a friary were erected.

Leaving the two lay brothers in London, Fr. Richard of Ingworth and Fr. Richard of Devonshire, about the feast of All Saints of the same year, 1220, set out for Oxford, where, at the time, King Henry was holding court. Being strangers in the country, they lost their way. Night was

7. It is probable that the Dominicans had come to England in 1219. See Parkinson, p. 16.

coming on, and they knew not where to turn for lodging. Finally, they came to a manor house that belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of Abbington. They knocked at the neighboring priory, and the porter, though astonished at their strange dress and strange story, was civil enough to admit them. But the prior, from a rather unworthy motive, treated the poor friars harshly and turned them out into the night. They had not gone far, when one of the monks, taking pity on them, had them called back, set refreshments before them, and led them to a hayloft, where they might rest their weary bones. That night, the good monk had a dreadful dream. He saw how Christ sitting in judgment commanded the inhospitable prior and monks of Abbington to be strangled, and how he himself found rescue in the fond embrace of St. Francis. On awaking, he hastened to the prior and found him struggling with death. Now he related his dream to the assembled brethren. All were filled with fear, especially when they went to the barn and found that the friars had gone. Some time later, both the prior and the abbot of Abbington joined the ranks of St. Francis.^

After spending a week with the Dominicans at Oxford, they answered the summons of Richard Miller, a wealthy citizen, who offered them a little house situated near the parish church of St. Ebbe. During the ensuing Christmas season. Blessed Agnellus visited Oxford and appointed Fr. William of Esseby guardian. In the following summer, the friary was enlarged. It is said that the king himself broke ground for the new building, and that men of high standing in the realm, not only advanced the work by generous alms, but also lent manual assistance, carrying stones and mortar to the masons. The king also ordered that the friarybe built as near as possible to the royal palace, that he might the more easily communicate with the friars. In this convent, which grew in dimensions as years went on, the sons of St. Francis dwelt till 1539, when it was demolished

8. This incident is related by Antony Wood. See Parkinson, p. 14.

by order of Henry VIII. For three centuries, the clerics of the Order were sent there to study and to attend the famous university of Oxford, so that we may justly term this friary the nursery of Franciscan learning and the most famous convent in the English province.

Thus, before the end of the year 1220, the Franciscans had established themselves at Canterbury, London, and Oxford. Meanwhile, as is very probable, other friars, hearing of the cordial reception accorded Blessed Agnellus and his companions, took heart and set out for England.^ Among these were Fr. Albert of Pisa, brother of Blessed Agnellus, . Fr. Henry of Pisa and FF. Peter and Thomas, both of Spanish birth. With their arrival, the provincial was able to found new houses. Accordingly, FF. Richard of Ingworth and Richard of Devonshire went to Northampton and obtained lodging in a hospital in the parish of St. Giles, until a friary was ready to receive them. The first guardian of this foundation was Fr. Peter the Spaniard. Not long after, the Franciscans settled in Cambridge. For a time they lived in an old synagogue that adjoined the city prison. But finding the noisy surroundings an obstacle to the proper discharge of their religious exercises, they purchased with the ten marks sent them by the king a plot of ground near by, on which the people erected for them a little oratory * ' as a carpenter may build in a day. ' ' Fr. Thomas of Spain became the first guardian of this place.

The next twenty-five years saw Franciscan friaries spring up in all parts of England. From Eccleston we learn that in the second year of the provincialship of Fr. Peter Tewkesbury, probably 1251, they were 49 in number. At the general chapter, in 1260, the English Province was registered as comprising seven custodies. ^° At the end of the next century, Fr. Bartholomew of Pisa, in his celebrated

9. Parkinson, p. 11. The fact, as the author observes, may explain the divergency of opinion among historians regarding the date when the first Franciscans arrived in England.

10. Annales Minorum, Vol. II, an. 1260, num. 14,

Liher Conformitatiim,^'^ enumerated these same seven custodies, adding the names of the friaries which at the time amounted to 60. The names of the custodies with their respective friaries are as follows :

1. London, nine friaries; viz., London, Canterbury, Win-

chelsea, Southampton, Ware, Lewes, Chichester, Salisbury, Winchester;

2. York, seven friaries ; viz., York, Doncaster, Lincoln, Bos-

ton, Beverley, Scarborough, Grimsby;

3. Cambridge, nine friaries ; viz., Cambridge, Norwich, Col-

4. Bristol, nine friaries; viz., Bristol, Gloucester, Bridge-

water, Hereford, Exeter, Carmarthen, Bodmin, Dorchester, Cardiff;

5. Oxford, eight friaries; viz., Oxford, Reading, Bedford,

Stamford, Nottingham, Northampton, Leicester, Grantham ;.

6. Newcastle, nine friaries; viz., Newcastle, Dundee, Dum-

fries, Haddington, Carlisle, Hartlepool, Berwick, Roxburgh, Richmond;

7. Worcester, nine friaries; viz., Worcester, Preston,

Broughton,^^ Shrewsbury, Coventry, Chester, Hereford,^3 Hamely,^* Stafford.

In the following towns, friaries were erected probably in the course of the fifteenth century ;^^ at least they are not on the lists drawn up by Bartholomew of Pisa and by Wadding :

Anglesey (Llanfaes near Aylesbury in Buckingham- Beaumaris) in Wales, shire,

11. Analecta Francisoana, Vol. IV, pp. 545 seq. In his Amvales Minorum (Vol. IV, an. 1400, num. 13), Wadding places side by side three lists of English friaries as he found them in three ancient codices. While the three codices have 7 custodies, but twa have 60 friaries, the third registering only 58.

12. Here Parkinson places Bridgenorth.

13. Parkinson says Litchfield.

14. Lancaster, according to Parkinson.

15. See Parkinson, Part II, pp. 37 seq.

Brougham in Westmoreland, Penrith in Cumberland,

Greenwich in Kent, Plymouth in Devonshire,

Maidstone in Kent, Stoke in Somersetshire,

Newwark in Nottingham- Warrington in Lancashire,

shire, Becmachen on the Isle of

Man.^«

If the historian of to-day finds it difficult to reconcile contradictory statements as to the religious houses that constituted the English Province, he will try in vain to determine the number of friars that belonged to the province. Among the first to join it were, according to Eccleston, FF. Solomon, William of London, Joyce of Comhill, John, and Philip ; then certain Masters of the university as Walter de Burgh, Richard the Norman, Vincent of Coventry, Adam de Marisco; and finally two Benedictines and four knights. ^^ How rapidly the province increased in membership, may be judged from the fact that thirty-two years after the arrival of the first Franciscans, it numbered 1,242 friars.^® To some extent, the number of friaries existing in 1260 permits us to form an estimate of the number of religious who inhabited them. Professor Little reckons that shortly before the Black Death, the English Province numbered some 2,000 friars.^^ But their ranks were greatly thinned, when the dreadful plague visited the country. This fact is confirmed by Gasquet, when he writes, "Of the Franciscans at Winchester and Southampton, only three clerics could be presented for ordination in 1347 and 1348. And before the death of the Bishop which occurred in 1359, only two more were presented. ' '^°

It was, no doubt, this marvelous growth of the province that induced Matthew Paris, who died in 1259, to write re-

16. This last friary is mentioned by Thaddeus, The Franciscans in England, p. 16, who adds, on the authority of Tanner and Dugdale, that it was founded in 1373.

17. Eccleston in Analecta Franciscarva, Vol. I, pp. 221 scq.

18. Ibidem.

19. Little, Studies in English Franciscan History, p. 71.

20. Gasquet, Black Death, p. 132.

garding the friars, ''All England was soon filled and replenished with these men, and not only the larger towns and cities, but the very villages and hamlets frequented by them."^^ Parkinson says that "their exemplary lives and disinterested comportment gained so upon all ranks of people, that their Order increased to an almost incredible number of friars, and their convents were built and enlarged in due proportion. ' '^^ The same historian brings the names of about 350 English Franciscans who, during the three centuries before the so-called Reformation, distinguished themselves either by their sanctity or by their activity and influence as provincials, preachers, bishops, legates, or as lecturers and doctors at Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris. Casually, he mentions groups of friars; for instance, when he says under the year 1220 that "many Englishmen petitioned to be admitted into the Order," and again, on the authority of Harpsfield, remarks that "many of the Benedictine monks, of the Augustinan friars, nay and of the very Carthusians petitioned and were admitted into the Order of St. Francis. "^^ Finally, it is worthy of special notice that, excepting the pioneers of the province, nothing at all is recounted regarding the lay brothers whose secluded life did not bring them before the public and into the annals of the province. From all this it may justly be inferred that the English Franciscans were very numerous, and that Brewer has reason to call the expansion of the province ' ' an instance of religious organization and propagandism unexampled in the annals of the world. ' '^*

The early Franciscans in England were men of sterling piety and of untiring zeal for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the people. Complete detachment from earthly comforts combined with a cheerful and winning disposition won for them the esteem and confidence of all classes. In selecting their field of labor, the friars made no distinction

21. See Parkinson, p. 30.

24. Monumenta Frandscana, Vol. I, Preface, p. XLI.

12 FRANCISCANS AKD

between ricli and poor, high and low, so that serf and outcast vied with king and noble in welcoming them in their midst and in providing them with the necessaries of life. At the ordination of Fr. Solomon, as Eccleston relates, the archdeacon called upon him with the words, '^ Brother Solomon, of the Order of the Apostles, may step forth," thereby unwittingly forecasting the future activity of the province.^^ For, as history shows, in their private life and in their exterior labors, the sons of St. Francis in England were true apostles sent to instruct and confirm the people in their faith and to imbue them with the true spirit of Christ. By word and example they showed the masses how to love God and their immortal soul above all things, how to submit to lawful authority in Church and State, how to foster love and harmony among themselves, how to forgive injuries, how to sympathize with sufferers, in a word, how to realize in their daily transactions those ideals of Christian perfection that have the promise of eternal life.

From the scanty records that escaped the vandalism of the sixteenth century, it is clear that the English Franciscans were ardent adherents of Lady Poverty. Penniless they came to England and penniless they lived and labored there. Their first friaries, erected almost without exception in the poorest and meanest quarters of the cities, were little better than hovels. "In all instances," Brewer maintains, ''the poverty of their buildings corresponded with those of the surrounding district : their living and lodging no better than the poorest among whom they settle. ' '-^ But even these humble dwellings the friars refused to possess as their own, declaring that they held them in the name of corporations. Likewise, in the beginning at least, they fairly rejected all lands and revenues, and depended for their subsistence on the liberality of the people whom they served. If it is certain that in after years wealthy benefactors bequeathed landed property and annual incomes to them, it is equally

25. Eccleston in Analecta Franciscana, Vol. I. p. 222.

26. Monumenta Franciscana, Vol. I, Preface, p. XIX.

certain that these were not welcomed, must less sought for, by the friars and were received by them only as alms to which they should have no legal claim.

Many interesting and edifying anecdotes are related, showing how the friars loved and practiced the vow of poverty. In London, for instance, the partitions of their original friary were filled out with dried grass. Before settling in Oxford, Blessed Agnellus gave orders that the walls of the infirmary were not to exceed a man 's height ; neither did this friary have a guest room until the time of Fr. Albert of Pisa, who was provincial in 1223. At Shrewsbury, Fr. William Nottingham, the fourth provincial, commanded that the stone walls in the dormitory be removed and mud walls put in their stead. The friars at Cambridge did not even have mantles to shield themselves against the cold. At another place, Fr. Solomon was, on one occasion, ''so starved with cold that he believed himself nigh unto death ; and the brethren having not wherewith to warm him, holy charity suggested to them a remedy ; for all the brethren gathered together and huddled about him. ' '^^

This extreme poverty and lack of every comfort did not \/ make the friars sullen and inaccessible. On the contrary, as they were poor and unassuming in their habits, so they were jovial and winning in their dealings with others. Their very poverty often proved a source of merriment and geniality. Thus Eccleston tells us how one evening, as was customary on days of fast, the brethren were gathered around the kitchen fire to drink of the beverage which, most probably, had been sent them by some benefactor. But the amount was not sufficient for all, so that ' ' he esteemed himself fortunate who could in a friendly way seize the cup from another." At another time it happened that two brethren came to one of the friaries on a visit. Having no refreshments to place before them, the guardian procured a measure of ale on credit. Now, when the jug was passed around, the members of the community indeed put it to their lips, so as