g. The most erudite were perhaps the Franciscans, who
arrived in 1224 and established themselves in St. Ebbe's parish in
houses and lands assigned to them by Richard le Mercer, Richard le
Miller, and others; and their possessions were enlarged and confirmed by
Henry III., their chief benefactor.

Such was the fame of the Franciscan friary that in 1353 Bishop
Grosseteste, of Lincoln, left all his books to the brotherhood, whilst
Bishop Hugo de Balsham, founder of Peterhouse, Cambridge, in his
statutes, dating about 1280, directed that some of the scholars should
annually repair to Oxford for improvement in the sciences under
Franciscan and other readers. It was in this seminary that Roger Bacon,
so renowned for his devotion to science and mathematics in the barbarous
ages, received his education. The priory, with the fine chapel and large
enclosures belonging to it, was granted in the thirty-sixth year of
Henry VIII. (1534) to two persons named Richard Andrews and John Howe,
who sold it the same year to one Richard Gunter.

We are, however, chiefly concerned with the Austins, whose priory had a
similar history. In 1351 Pope Innocent IV. empowered the Friars Eremites
of St. Austin to travel into all lands, found houses, and celebrate
divine service. Here in England they were first domiciled in London, but
certain of the brethren were deputed to journey to Oxford, where they
hired a small house near the Public Schools. Their attainments in
divinity and philosophy having attracted the attention of a rich
Buckinghamshire knight, Sir John Handlove, or Handlow, of Burstall, he
bought a piece of ground for them, and this was afterwards enlarged by a
gift from Henry III. Upon this they erected a splendid college and
chapel, in which, before the Divinity School was built, the University
Acts were deposited, and exercises in Arts performed. It was
particularly enjoined that every Bachelor of Arts should dispute once a
year, and answer once a year, in this house--a rule enforced until the
dissolution. The disputations were then removed to St. Mary's, and
afterwards to the Schools, but they still retained the name they had so
long borne--"disputations in Austins."

Candidates for degrees in the higher faculties--Law, Medicine, and
Theology--had to undergo the same experiences as were prescribed for the
faculty of Arts; that is to say, they had to respond, to dispute, to
determine, and to incept. Regents from other universities wer