]--seneschal of Lynn for
Pandulph, Bishop of Norwich, and, as such, a personage of importance,
became his convert and joined the new order; but the number of
Norfolk clergy and scholars who actually became friars must have been
very large indeed; they were quite the picked men among the
Franciscans in England. Of the first eighteen masters of Franciscan
schools at Cambridge, at least ten were Norfolk men, while of the
first five Divinity readers at Oxford whose names have been recorded,
after those of Grosseteste and Roger de Weseham, four were
unmistakably East Anglians. No one familiar with Norfolk topography
could fail to be struck by this fact, and the queer spellings of some
places, which puzzled even Mr. Brewer, are themselves suggestive.
[Footnote: _E.g._, Turnham represents the Norfolk pronunciation
of _Thornham_. Heddele is _Hadleigh_, in Suffolk spelt phonetically
; Ravingham is _Raveningham_, Assewelle is _Ashwell_ [cf. p. 93,
Esseby for Ashby], Sloler is _Sloley_, Leveringfot is _Letheringset_.]
St. Francis died at Assisi on October 4, 1226. With his death
troubles began. Brother Elias, who was chosen to succeed him as
Minister General of the Order, had little of the great founder's
spirit, and none of his genius. There was unseemly strife and
rivalry, and on the Continent it would appear that the Minorites made
but little way.
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