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The Franciscan Heritage in England (C chapter 21 The Franciscan Heritage in England (c. 1240–c. 1350) Michael J.P. Robson St Francis of Assisi was one of the most striking and colourful saints in the Western Church. The son of a prosperous merchant in the Umbrian city of Assisi, he swapped his life of wealth and privilege for one of penance and evangelical poverty in imitation of Jesus Christ and his apostles.The ministry of the Son of God provided the template for Francis’s vocation and liberated him from the shackles of possessions and wealth. After spending about two years repairing churches in the environs of Assisi, the key to his vocation was found in the reading of the Gospel during Mass at the rural chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The text in which the apostles were dispatched to proclaim the Gospel (Matthew 10:9–10, Luke 9:2, Mark 6:7–13) challenged Francis to do the same. Obeying the Scriptures to the letter, he returned to the city of his birth where he called upon his former neighbours to change their lives by embracing penance for their failings. The citizens of Assisi recognized that Francis had undergone a radical change and that his former profligacy and affluence had given way to the apostolic life with a heightened concern for the guidance conveyed by the Scriptures. 1 St Francis and the English Province One inhabitant of Assisi, Bernard of Quintavalle, was so curious about Fran- cis’s new life that he invited him to supper. The unfolding of Francis’s excit- ing new vision of evangelical life inspired Bernard to commit his future to the direction of il poverello. The following morning they went to the local parish church of San Nicolà in search of direction for their common vocation, and requested a priest to open the book of the Gospels thrice at random to pinpoint the basis of their vocation, the kernel of their incipient fraternity. Informed by three texts regarding penance, evangelical poverty and preach- ing, Bernard publicly divested himself of his possessions in the piazza di San Giorgio, a gesture that indirectly brought at least two additional penitents to the fraternity, Sylvester and Giles of Assisi. When the disciples had reached © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/9789004331624_022 the franciscan heritage in england (c. 1240–c. 1350) 449 the biblical number of twelve, they walked to Rome to seek the approval of Innocent iii, who authorized them to preach penance; Francis was invited to expound the Scriptures in Assisi’s churches and was ordained to the diaconate at an unknown date.1 His homilies were so incisive that they acted as a recruit- ing sergeant for more vocations. He was a remarkable communicator whose insights and powerful example drew several men to join the small community that was beginning to look beyond Assisi and Umbria. He dreamed that his family would grow into a large army of penitents, attracting men from various parts of Europe. By 1215 the number of recruits began to increase and this facilitated the spread of the movement to other countries. Francis predicted that men from England, Germany and Spain would hasten to join him.2 The chapter of 1217 sent groups of friars throughout Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, the Holy Land and Portugal. The decision to establish the fraternity in England was taken by Francis, who appointed Agnellus of Pisa as the leader of the group, a move that was confirmed by the general chapter. It was left to Gregory of Naples, minister provincial of France, to make preparations for the mission across the Channel. Fr. André Callebaut reflects that the province of France fournit les neuf fondateurs de la province Anglaise.3 The friars landed at Dover in the late summer of 1224 and made their first foundations at Canterbury, London, Oxford and Northampton, laying the foundations for the rapid growth of the English province. Friaries were established in the principal cities and the leading boroughs throughout the length and breadth of the country, although precise dates for foundations and the names of founders are relatively sparse.4 By the end of the thirteenth century there were seven regional clusters, known as custodies, and fifty-two friaries in England and Wales; the foundation at Durham was temporary on account of opposition from the monks of the cathedral priory. 1 For a review of the evidence consult Michael F. Cusato, ‘Francis of Assisi, deacon? An exam- ination of the claims of the earliest Franciscan sources 1229–1235’, in Defenders and Critics of Franciscan Life: Essays in Honor of JohnV.Fleming, ed. Michael F. Cusato and Guy Geltner, The Medieval Franciscans 6 (Leiden, 2009), 9–39. 2 ‘Thomae da Celano Vita prima Sancti Francisci’, no. 27, in ff, 275–424, esp. 301–302. 3 André Callebaut, ‘Les Provinciaux de la province de France au xiiie siècle: notes, documents et études’, afh 10 (1917), 289–356, esp. 295. 4 Chronicon de Lanercost, 42, testifies that the friars reached Carlisle around 15 August 1233 and were accommodated inside the city walls. ‘The Chronicle of John Somer’, 232, 234, 236, provides information on the order’s relocation to new sites at Bridgwater in 1240, Cardiff in 1280 and Exeter in 1300..
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