In à Wood's diagram the house just to the west of this entrance is marked as the Priest's House. This old building (which, with the two houses next it, belongs now to the College) is said to have once been occupied by Charles I. In Pennyfarthing Street lived, till his death in 1644, Brian Twyne, to whose antiquarian collections à Wood owed so much. Here, in 1648, William Percy, third son of the eighth Earl of Northumberland, 'died an aged bachelaur, after he had lived a melancholy and retired life many yeares. He was buried in the cathedral of Ch. Church'. The street often resounded with 'the best base voice in England,' that of James Quin (1621-59), M.A., senior student of Christ Church (son of Walter Quin of Dublin), who, in Oct. 1659, 'died in a crazed condition in his bedmaker's house in Penyfarthing Street, and was buried in the cathedral of Ch. Ch. A[nthony] W[ood] had some acquaintance with him and hath several times heard him sing with great admiration. His voice was a bass, and he had a great command of it. Twas very strong and exceeding trouling, but he wanted skill, and could scarce sing in consort. He had been turn'd out of his student's place by the Visitors; but being well acquainted with some great men of those times that loved musick, they introduced him into the company of Oliver Cromwel the protector, who loved a good voice and instrumentall musick well. He heard him sing with great delight, liquor'd him with sack, and in conclusion said: "Mr. Quin you have done very well, what shall I doe for you?" To which Quin made answer with great complements, of which he had command with a great grace, that "his Highness would be pleased to restore him to his Student's place"; which he did accordingly, and so kept it to his dying day 2 In Agas's map, Pennyfarthing Street is the name given also to the continuation of the street past St. Ebbe's Church, now Church Street. But the usual name was Freren or Friar's Street. NOTE: A JEWS' QUARTER. We have seen that several of the halls in this street once had Jewish owners. Oxford had one of the wealthiest of English Jewries, a source of much trade to the citizens. About the year 1075 the Jews in great numbers began to settle in Oxford, and chiefly in the parishes of S. Martin, S. Edward, and S. Aldate; the two last of which were afterwards called the Great and Little Jewries. In one of them they erected a synagogue or school, and expounded the opinions of the Rabbins to the Academians. Several of their houses were inhabited by Clerks.' Fuller says that in Henry the Third's reign Oxford flourished with a multitude of 1 Life and Times, i. 145. Life and Times, i. 287, and Gutch's Colleges and Halls, p. 511. Wood, however, says that the Independents used to 'love and encourage instrumental musick; but did not care for vocall, because that was used in church by the prelaticall partie.' Life and Times, i. 298. JEWS MEDIEVAL AND MODERN. 59 students, the king conferring large favours upon them, and this among the rest that no Jews living at Oxford should receive of scholars above twopence a week interest for the loan of twenty shillings, that is eight shillings and eightpence for the interest of a pound in the year.' In 1244 a riotous mob of students attacked the Jews' houses. In 1268, during a solemn Holy Thursday procession in honour of St. Frideswyde, a Hebrew zealot tore the Cross from the proctor's hands and trampled it under foot. The Jews were condemned to make for the University a heavy silver crucifix, to be carried in procession, and to erect a marble cross on the spot-as it seems nearly opposite Pembroke College-where the profanity had been committed. It was finally placed in an open plot by Merton chapel. Neither the Church however nor the Town had power over them; they were Crown chattels without civic rights. Edward I finally banished the Jews. Wood says, 'The suddenness of their dismission obliged them for present subsistence to sell their moveable goods of all kinds, among which were large quantities of Rabbinical books. The monks in various parts availed themselves of the distribution of these treasures. At Oxford great multitudes of them fell into the hands of Roger Bacon, or were bought by his brethren, the Franciscan friars, of that University.' So also Green. Professor Neubauer, however, thinks the Jews had little in the way of books or science to impart. The principal Jewries were along Blue Boar Lane. Professor Thorold Rogers however considered that, Oxford having wide privileges of asylum, a dwindling Jewish settlement continued to exist even after the Expulsion till 1840 or thereabouts. Finally the remaining relics were scattered, when a calamitous fire occurred in their quarter, then called Pennyfarthing Street, a name since altered by a stupid and ignorant local board to Pembroke Street 2.' A number of Hebrew documents were in a house in St. Ebbe's Street destroyed by fire on Feb. 27, 1844. The Jews returned under Cromwell, and in 1650 one Jacob opened a coffee-house in Oxford. 1 Notes on the Jews in Oxford' in Collectanea, II. pp. 287, 8. CHAPTER VI. RELIGIOUS HOUSES ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE COLLEGE. Of the splendid conventual houses in the south and west quarters of Oxford, only St. Frideswyde's, the church of the Austin canons, now stands. But the students of Broadgates looked down from the City wall on the gardens and buildings of two great monasteries. One of these was the Dominican house of the Black or Preaching Friars, who in 1221 had settled in the Great Jewry, for neighbourhood to the Schools and with a view to Jewish conversions. It is said the Mad Parliament met within their walls. But, in 1259, they moved to a site just south of the present Pembroke College, 'an obscure place without the walls and farre from the company of disciples, schollers, and auditors'. At the end of Brewers Street is the Black Drummer public-house, and lower down, mixed up with Commercial Road and Gas Street, are Friars Street and Blackfriars Road. Preachers' Bridge, over Trill Mill stream, is obliterated; but beyond are Friars' Wharf and Preachers' Pool. This quarter is reached from St. Aldate's Street by Speedwell Street, which at one time was called Preachers' Entry and led to Blackfriars' Gate. All this is Dominican ground 2. The convent and church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, stood on an islet in the midst, given to the Friars Preachers by Henry III. There were schools in which lectures on philosophy and theology were given, and the public acts or dissertations on theses of divinity took place in the church or chapter-house. One of the priors, Simon de Bovil, was Chancellor of the University. Among the teachers were such as Robert Fisacre, Robert Kilwarby, Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury, Walter Joyce, Primate of All Ireland, and his brother, Cardinal Thomas Joyce. The Black Friars obtained respect 'with the Grandies of the Universitie,' 'by reason of their learned parts in philosophy and divinity,' and with the citizens and clergy 'because of their simple and saint-like carriage.' Their library was 'large and full of books,' and among them were many famous canonists. ‘Being very skilful in the Canon Law they did erecte a large Schoole wherin they openly read and discussed many points of the Canon Law before the University, and was commonly called "Schola Juris Canonici" Canon Law Schoole, or only Canon Schoole "." 1 City, ii. 330. 2 See Goldie, A Bygone Oxford, p. 14. 3 City, ii. 327. FRIARS BLACK AND GREY. 61 This was in their first quarters; but beside the Trill Mill stream also, 'having procured power from the University,' they erected a school, 'where the disputations called the Vespers as also the Bachelours' Determinations were in severall ages amongst themselves performed '.' Because of their reputation as canonists they received powers from Boniface VIII to 'review and correct' all writings treating of the Canon Law, before publication. In the great Church of the Black Friars, a stone's throw from Pembroke, was interred the famous Piers or Peter de Gaveston after his beheadal. 'At the first arrivall of his body here [in Oxford] the comonalty of Oxon togeather with these Fryers meet it at the town's end, and accompanied it to this place with great solemnity; and had severall masses for the health of his soule performed by them3.' After three years, however, the favourite's body was removed, and 'by the king himselfe and many of the bishops and clergy (the nobles then absenting themselves) attended from thence to Kinges Langley in Hertfordshire, where with all ceremonies pompe and signes of honour was reburied in the church of the Preaching Fryers there' In 1224, three years after their arrival in Oxford, the Dominicans welcomed there a band of Franciscan or Grey Friars. The new-comers rented a house from Robert le Mercer at the west extremity of what is now Pembroke College, that is between St. Ebbe's and Littlegate, but presently moved just outside the wall 'about a stone's cast from their first hired house,' to 'the place where Muliner's [i.e. Richard le Miller's] house stood.' Here they were joined by many graduates and persons of good birth belonging to the University. Starting from very humble beginnings, the monastery grew and gathered gifts. To them as to the Black Friars King Henry gave, in 1245, an eyot of five acres, across the Trill Mill stream, where they made a pleasaunce. The king, wearied with State cares, came often from his palace at Beaumont to find repose among the Grey Brothers. In this retired spot, a little south and west of St. Ebbe's, sprang up a school of learning famous through Europe; for the Friars, in order to screen their novices from the temptations and turbulence of the public schools, brought in teachers from without; and among these or among the students were such as Grostête or Grouthead (the Doctor Mirabilis), Adam Marsh or de Marisco (the Doctor Illustris), Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, Nicholas de Lyra, William Occham, Peter Philardo (the Doctor Refulgens, afterwards Pope Alexander V), Friar Bungay, John Peckham, afterwards Lord Primate, together with others of 'the greatest clerks in Christendome.' It was Grostête who turned the Grey Friars from speculative to legal studies. 'Though he never smelt of an academy or scarse tasted of humane learning, yet he constrained these his brethren to the studying and reading of the decretalls ",' 1 City, ii. 330. Ibid. ii. 322. 2 Ibid. ii. 336. 3 Ibid. ii. 339. • Ibid. ii. 362. 5 'Now belonging to Sir William Moorton, Kt., Judge of the King's Bench.' Ibid. ii. 361. 'laying aside their sophisms,'-about the being of GOD and the like. The Friary possessed two notable libraries, erected, it is said, by Grostête and enriched by a number of Hebrew Bibles bought by Adam Marsh at the time of the Expulsion. In later times the Oxford Franciscans forgot their learning, neglected their library, 'once the choicest of any of this nation,' and allowed their books to be 'tore in peices or else condemned to eternall silence ',' giving some excuse to those under Henry VIII, who called them a gang of lazy and fat-headed friars. Antony à Wood cries, 'I professe, so often as I think of the great dammage posterity doth suffer by the destruction of these "recondita" I am readie to burst out with greif'.' In the Conventual Church, 316 feet in length and 180 feet wide, with twelve side chapels richly wrought, many noble persons were laid to rest shrouded in the coarse frock of the Grey Friars; in particular Beatrice de Falkeston queen of Richard 'King of the Romaines and Almaine,' brother of Henry III. She, dying 'on the vigills of St. Luke the Evangelist anno 1275,' was laid before the high altar, where afterwards was placed the heart of her husband, 'sub sumptuosa et mirandi operis pyramide.' 'Great comfort people did take if upon their death bed they were assured their bodyes would be buried here.' Here also was buried, in 1292, the greatest light of mediæval thought, Brother Roger Bacon. Wood thinks that his study was here and not at Folly Bridge. 'It hath bin delivered to me from eminent persons of this University and to them formerly by others of the same, both well seen in astronomy and antiquityes, that Roger Bacon, a Franciscan fryer of Oxon, knowne to be a great astronomer, did sometimes use in the night season to ascend this place invironed with waters and there to take the altitude and distance of starrs, and make use of it for his owne convenience in that respect, it being very necessary, situated for its vicinity to his covent, by conveying himself through a backway over Trillmill into Grandpont".' He adds, however, in a note, 'But I believe all this was at Little Gate.' His tomb-stone, à Wood had heard, was dug up at the end of the sixteenth century. There was left at Little Gate in the historian's time 'a little old decrepit building,' of which the lower windows touched the ground, 'which, while wee were freshmen, tradition told us 'twas Roger Bacon's and Thomas Bongei's study. One of the three gates of the Convent was just opposite Beef Lane. Always the scholars of Broadgates and the neighbouring halls upon the City wall looked out on these stately houses of religious learning, and heard the bell ringing to prayers, or watched the Brothers walking in their peaceful garth or among their fields and orchards, and the sound of prayer and praise was at certain hours carried to their ears. No wonder if some among them felt a longing to put on the black or gray cowl. The Franciscans had the name of enticing them from their studies. In their 1 City, ii. 383. Ibid. ii. 4c9. 2 Ibid. ii. 380. 5 Ibid. i. 425. 3 Ibid. ii. 384. 6 Ibid. ii. 411. |