St. Francis himself was always strongly opposed to the learning of his age.
‘Tantum habet homo de scientia quantum operatur,’ he said, ‘et religiosus tantum est bonus orator quantum operatur[187].’
But it was inevitable that the missionaries to the towns should be armed with a knowledge of theology to enable them to cope with the numerous heresies of the thirteenth century, and with a knowledge of physical science to enable them to cope with the frequent pestilences caused by the disregard of sanitary conditions[188]. In addition to this the influence of many learned men in the Order could not but be felt; and the early Franciscans in England were as zealous for learning as for good works.
‘They were so fervent,’ Eccleston tells us, ‘in hearing the divine law and in scholastic exercises, that they hesitated not to go every day to the schools of theology, however distant, barefoot in bitter cold and deep mud[189].’
Agnellus, though in Wood’s words ‘he never smelt of an Academy or tasted of humane learning[190],’ frankly recognised the necessity. The school which he built at Oxford has already been noticed:
‘but afterwards,’ adds Bartholomew of Pisa[191], ‘he had reason for regret, when he saw the friars bestowing their time on frivolities and neglecting needful things; for one day when he wished to see what proficiency they were making, he entered the schools whilst a disputation was going on, and hearing them wrangling and questioning, _Utrum sit Deus_, he cried: “Woe is me, woe is me! Simple brothers enter Heaven, and learned brothers dispute whether there is a God at all!” Then he sent 10_l._ sterling to the Court to buy the Decretals, that the friars might study them and give over frivolities.’
Agnellus rendered the greatest service to his Order by persuading Robert Grostete, the foremost scholar of his time, and the most influential man at Oxford, to accept the post of lecturer to the friars[192]. The exact date at which he undertook these duties is uncertain. He resigned the archdeaconries of Northampton and Leicester in 1231, but he may have been lecturer to the Franciscans some time before this; certainly he was closely connected with their house at Oxford[193]. He was resident in the University in 1234[194], and according to both Eccleston[195] and the Lanercost Chronicle[196], he gave up his lectureship only to accept the bishopric of Lincoln in 1235.