Preface

Summary

This volume is conceived as an international tribute to John Moorman, historian and churchman, who died in 1989. It commemorates Moorman’s outstanding contribution to the history of the Franciscan order and reflects on his legacy to the world of scholarship. The chapters engage variously with that legacy, some explicitly and directly, others in a more general way.

The first section concerns Moorman as a Franciscan historian, beginning with an appreciation of his publications by Michael Robson (Chapter 1). Petà Dunstan contributes a biographical study of the young Moorman, based on his unpublished diaries (Chapter 2). William Short's discussion of Moorman's correspondence with the leading journal of Franciscan history, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, including an edition of his letters, is printed as an Appendix.

The second section concerns the order's medieval English province. Patrick Zutshi discusses the early representation of Franciscans, as well as Dominicans, in English manuscript art (Chapter 3). Michael Robson illustrates the uses to which the biographical register of English medieval Franciscans initiated by Moorman can be put (Chapter 4). Three contributions in this section treat fundamental features of the Franciscan experience: the economic basis of the custody of Cambridge, by Jens Röhrkasten (Chapter 5); the burials of the London Franciscans, by Christian Steer (Chapter 6); and preaching, by Bert Roest (Chapter 7).

The third and final section deals with the Franciscans’ relationship to education, in its broadest sense. C.H. Lawrence discusses Adam Marsh, a central figure in both the University of Oxford and the order (Chapter 8), while Cecilia Panti elucidates the scientific writings of three men associated with the Oxford Franciscans (Chapter 9). Neslihan Şenocak illustrates the influence of the early English Franciscans on the wider order, in theology and other areas (Chapter 10).

The eight contributions concerning the experience of the Franciscans in medieval England result in a somewhat different picture of the order from that which its vicissitudes on the Continent might suggest. In England the internal dissensions over the ideals of the founder did not play a prominent part, and the Observants did not take root here until 1482, when they settled at Greenwich. Similarly, the English province was not dramatically affected by the conflicts with external authorities, notably the papacy.