Free The Friar and the Cipher by Lawrence Goldstone

authority to detain, question, and punish suspected heretics in the pope's name. For this he chose the Dominicans. They proved so successful in France that Gregory soon expanded the practice throughout Europe. So ferocious were the Friars Preachers in enforcing orthodoxy that a grim play on words circulated, separating
dominicanes
into
domini canes,
meaning “dogs of God.” Thus was born the Inquisition, an institution that would sow terror in the name of God for the next 350 years.
    In order to be effective in this and other worldly responsibilities, Dominic understood the necessity of having educated followers. Accordingly, seven of his original sixteen acolytes were sent to the University of Paris. Others went to Frederick's university at Naples, and by 1222 there were Dominicans at Oxford. The universities thus became de facto recruitment centers for the Friars Preachers.
    Learning, on the other hand, was anathema to Francis, who wanted an order where all the brethren were completely equal. He worried that distinctions of birth, wealth, knowledge, or position would overcome his vision. As beloved as he was personally, however, Francis was unwilling to impose standards of behavior on his order, choosing to lead by example. Without a strong hand at the top, almost from the first, Franciscans followed the Dominicans to the universities.
    Once at the university, to Francis's chagrin, the Friars Minor demonstrated the same zeal for learning (and recruitment of the learned into the order) that characterized their brother mendicants, the Friars Preachers. In fact, there was soon so much competition between the two for who could convert the most students that there were frequent complaints to the papacy that one or the other was engaging in unfair recruitment practices. By the time of St. Francis's death in 1224, most of his original vision had been modified or superseded by political practicalities.
     
    IN 1228, DURING A CITYWIDE FESTIVAL IN PARIS, a brawl began in a bar and then spilled out onto the streets. Students were killed, and in protest, the masters shut down the university and vowed to leave Paris if their grievances were not addressed. They were not, and so there was a mass exodus of masters and students to other universities.
    With the University of Paris closed, Roger Bacon's parents chose to send him to study closer to home at the new university at Oxford, which, unbeknownst to them, happened to be the most radical school in all of Europe.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Rebels in Gray Robes:
Oxford
    •   •   •
    OXFORD WAS NOT EVEN A TOWN until the tenth century, when a wall was built as a defense against any invaders who might attempt to cross the Thames. There was no tradition of higher education—Oxford never even had a monastery school. In 1117, there is a record of one master and fifty pupils. Fifty years later, the small walled city in the rolling countryside along a strategic river became a favorite of Henry II (Richard and perhaps John had been born in nearby Beaumont Castle). By the beginning of the thirteenth century, Oxford was a thriving mercantile center.
    Oxford became a university town for many of the same reasons that Paris did—scholars bearing translated manuscripts came there to settle and study. Enrollment got a big boost when Henry, furious that the French were providing sanctuary for Thomas à Becket, forbade English students from crossing the Channel to attend school.
    As the number of students swelled, lodging and class space became harder to find and more expensive. Classes were held in a variety of public buildings, taverns, or church facilities, often wherever a master happened to be staying. The city was dangerous, particularly after dark when the gates were locked, with robberies and murders common. The young men who came to study, therefore, most just thirteen or fourteen years old, tried to procure lodgings close to the master with whom they would be studying.
    Oxford was officially a