Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Timeline
- Introduction
- 1 The launching of the mission to England
- 2 The first foundations
- 3 The admission of novices
- 4 The growth of the Franciscan community
- 5 The fervour of the early friars
- 6 The office of preaching
- 7 The seven custodies
- 8 The three general visitators
- 9 The Irish and Scottish provinces
- 10 The relocation of friaries and their enlargement
- 11 The friars’ schools of theology
- 12 The confessors
- 13 The ministers general
- 14 The ministers provincial
- 15 A gallery of friars
- A post script
- Bibliography
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Timeline
- Introduction
- 1 The launching of the mission to England
- 2 The first foundations
- 3 The admission of novices
- 4 The growth of the Franciscan community
- 5 The fervour of the early friars
- 6 The office of preaching
- 7 The seven custodies
- 8 The three general visitators
- 9 The Irish and Scottish provinces
- 10 The relocation of friaries and their enlargement
- 11 The friars’ schools of theology
- 12 The confessors
- 13 The ministers general
- 14 The ministers provincial
- 15 A gallery of friars
- A post script
- Bibliography
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
Thomas of Eccleston is celebrated as the first friar to record the deeds of the Franciscans, or Friars Minor, in England, from their arrival in 1224 until the close of his narrative in 1257/58. He wrote about the friars whose life he shared, and he recounted the order’s settlement in the cities and major boroughs. He assiduously collected materials for his chronicle, and he dipped into his resources to find anecdotes to chart the friars’ deeds and to illustrate their virtues, which greatly enriched the Church.
Thomas of Eccleston and Franciscan history
Thomas acquired the toponym de Eckleston from John Bale, who does not cite any evidence. Somewhat earlier John Leland summarised Thomas’s life and his treatise. He believed that Eccleston had studied at Oxford and that he
(…) was gripped by an extraordinary desire to know the origin, growth and success of the Franciscan order, and particularly the English branch. He therefore consulted the superiors of his order and learnt everything that related to the history he had planned. (…) he finally set to work. Beginning with the arrival of the Franciscan Agnellus of Pisa in Britain, he continued his history with the greatest diligence, painstaking care, and total reliability, down to the time of William of Nottingham, the minister general of the whole Franciscan order. He dedicated the finished book to Simon de Esseby, an erudite friend. A copy still survives in the library of Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Leland’s account carries added weight due to the fact that on the eve of the Dissolution of the friaries in 1538/39 he had consulted the anonymous Catalogus quoque illustrium Franciscanorum in the Oxford Greyfriars.
Eccleston’s chronicle is the chief source of information regarding the friars’ arrival in England and their early expansion. Much of it consists of notes and anecdotes. His stature within the community of chroniclers has long been recognised. He was fêted as the chronicler of the Franciscans’ arrival and their impact on English soil.
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- Thomas of Eccleston's De adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam 'The Arrival of the Franciscans in England', 1224-c. 1257/8Commentary and Analysis, pp. 1 - 25Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023