The Franciscans in the Custody of York have been the focal point of Michael Robson's research for many years. In this volume he combs a wide variety of sources to offer a prosopographical and/or biographical approach to the personnel and activities of these men, focusing both on collective and individual contributions. The volume, for which he modestly claims an editor's persona when he could very properly be listed as "author," is divided into two parts. In the first (1-78), Robson talks of the sources combed to explore the many lines of Franciscan activity in the north of England and the roles of these mendicants in its towns and cities as well as in a fair number of papal and royal courts. The second section (85-276) offers an alphabetized listing of all the identifiable Franciscans, ranging from one-line entries for friars only known by their date of ordination to longer entries for those who rose to careers of note as bishops, diplomats, local leaders, or scholars. These entries are a database or reference listing some 1700 men, a "who's who" for the Grey Friars between their arrival in England and the dissolution of the 1530s.
In an effort to name as many men as possible, Robson talks of his extensive mining of many sources. Some are obvious, like 68 episcopal registers, alongside less likely sources such as Proofs of Age or royal wardrobe accounts--all testimony to Robson's diligence and to the ubiquity and versatility of the Franciscans. Much attention is focused on those episcopal registers, laconic guides to the hundreds of mendicants who received ordination, while the sources such as royal and municipal records steer us to "the friars' integration" in church and state. Friars (or would-be friars) were put through primary and then secondary education, with some then going on to university. Given their emphasis on preaching, sending out men with some training in theology and the ability to think on their feet was virtually a sine qua non. One area where the Franciscans supplied impressive numbers was in the ranks of suffragan bishops (64-69). The Church was countenancing such appointments, as back-ups for English bishops and/or as bishops in partibus infidelium, nominal rulers of sees in the Crusader States or Nisch in Bulgaria or Irish sees into which they would never set foot. Such appointments dignified the friar, gave the Church the appearance of jurisdiction beyond its genuine reach, and offered back-up help for English bishops with many other calls upon their time and attention. Robson's sifting of sources also covers such topics as the appearance of Franciscans in northern chronicles, their role in the northern church, their "path to ordination," and the role of a few in the investigation of the Templars.
The bulk of the book is that listing of all the mendicants Robson has been able to identify. Most of the 1700-plus friars are known only through the record of their ordination in an episcopal register. For the four levels of ordination--acolyte, sub-deacon, deacon, and priest--only 24% (of 1714 men: p. 17) can be traced as having gone through all four stages. But what really stands out in these brief listings is that most men went through the ceremonies--whether we just know of one or of all four--at more than one venue. It seems that the friars moved around a good deal. A typical case: Anthony Lucy was ordained as sub-deacon in Durham Cathedral in December 1344, as deacon in March 1345 at St. Andrew's church, Aukland, and as a priest in September 1348 at Skipton parish church. The cloth of this pattern can be cut to fit hundreds of these men. They were not under the Benedictine vow of stability and the records indicate that they were likely to move around, albeit within limited boundaries.
A few of Robson's biographical entries are of some length, tracing long careers. Thomas Barnby was a foundation fellow of Merton College, a D.Th., and the custos of the order in York. John Bell was bishop of Mayo, though this was a contested appointment that never gave him much kudos. He became the suffragan bishop of Lincoln and, at the end, had to depend on a special pension. There are about 45 or 50 of these longer entries, looking at men whose roles on the public stage are noted in a variety of sources. From the biographies--even the one-line ones--a number of themes or currents emerge. One point of interest is the number of Franciscans named in some sort of criminal or dubious activity. It might be that a friar was "accused of malpractice regarding property." To move up a notch, he was "accused of seizing his wife...and abducting and detaining her and certain goods and chattels," while another friar had been "sued...for false imprisonment." Trouble might fall upon him regarding his spiritual role: "he preached that the payment of personal tithes to clerks with cure of souls was not enjoined by divine law," for which he was called on the carpet. On the brighter side there was that "integration" into secular society and town life; a number of men in and around York were admitted to the town'sCorpus Christi guild. Permission or license to serve as a confessor certainly fell within a friar's spiritual role and it was often granted. It might be permission to hear the confession of lord Ashton's subjects "who had perpetrated misdemeanours in the deanery of Preston...and to grant absolution and acquittances." Once it was permission to "hear the confessions of those who were accompanying the earl [of Lincoln] to fight in Scotland." And, in recognition that a number of friars in these lists were not native to England, there was permission to a friar of Stamford "to hear confessions of all Germans in the diocese of Lincoln."
Testamentary bequests to friars were not uncommon, usually coming in the form of a small sum (often, 6s.8d.), with prayers for the testator's soul the customary reciprocity. There were a few larger bequests, and sometimes an object rather than a sum was stipulated, either for the friar himself or for his church. If 6s.8d. was the most common amount named, some gave less and some gave more. A mere 20d. from a goldsmith of York seems rather niggardly, perhaps balanced by the 6 marks that another man left in return for "Masses daily for his wife and all the faithful in the Greyfriars for a year." Once it was money for a friar's habit in addition to that customary 6s.8d. Other points of interest stand out, given the number of men mentioned here, and a few of the notices are well out of the ordinary. One man had been so well thought of that miracles "were associated" with him after his burial at Lincoln. Another friar told his confessor of a "vision of angels" that had appeared to him. One man resigned the mastership of St. Leonard's hospital, York, to become a Franciscan, whereas another friar "received paper permission to transfiliate [from his friary] to the Cistercian monastery of Louth Park." One friar found sympathetic authorities in his desire to leave the order, as he had been pushed into it at age seven, impelled by "childish levity." And among all 1700 men, we can assume that no one wished to follow the lead of Roger Frisby, D.Th, "hanged at Tyburn in 1402" for his opposition to the accession of Henry IV.
This seemingly dry material is a treasure trove of information about lives and activities. We get a picture of movement, of constant activity, of contacts with other men of the cloth and with lay men and women in any number of situations and settings. In a chronological span, the men named run from Martin Barton, who had personally known St. Francis, to those friars sent into the world to face a mixed fate at the dissolution of the order in the 1530s. The role of friars in diplomacy, as royal and papal envoys, and as full-fledged bishops of English sees, has not been touched upon here. All are aspects of larger topics that could be explored and expanded to advantage. St. Francis wanted his followers to mingle with the people and even those men who get little more than their name listed here are examples of how his mandate was implemented in the Custody of York. The value of this book runs far beyond what seems an austere title. So many friars and so much to say about them. Our thanks to Michael Robson, author-compiler-editor.