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arrival in England, Agnellus of Pisa, the first Provincial
in this country, built a school at Oxford and induced
Grostete, afterwards the famous bishop of
Lincoln, to read lectures to the brethren. Under his
instruction they made wonderful progress ; the motherwit
of their sermons derived point and method from
the learning of the schools ;
" political and social
questions found place in them side by side with
spiritual matters ; and the rudest countryman learned
his tale of a king's oppression or a patriot's hopes as
he listened to the rambling, passionate, humorous
discourse of the begging friar."i
Their cultivation of literature was a necessity, but
they soon departed from their founder's rule in another
point, adherence to which would have secured a
respectful admiration if not an absolute sympathy.
The austere self-denial of voluntary poverty ceased
to exist. " In defiance of the vow of absolute poverty,"
says Dean Milman, " the Franciscans vied in wealth
with the older and less rigorous orders. Mendicancy,
their vital principle, had long ceased to be content
with the scanty boon of hard fare and coarse clothing;
it grasped at lands and the cost at least of
splendid buildings."- The result was odium as great
as had been their early popularity. The satirical
writers of the period soon began to pour contempt
and ridicule upon the friars. The unanimity of their
attacks leads irresistibly to the conclusion that they
cannot have been altogether undeserved.
'
Green's " History," i. p. 266.
^ "Latin Christianity," v. p. 213.