The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).>br>Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.
X. English Scholars of Paris and Franciscans of Oxford§ 14. Franciscans of Oxford
The order of the Franciscans was founded at Assisi in 1210; that of the Dominicans, at Toulouse in 1215; and, at an early date, both orders resolved on establishing themselves in the great seats of education. The Dominicans fixed their headquarters at Bologna and Paris (1217), besides settling at Oxford (1221) and Cambridge (1274); while the Franciscans settled at Oxford and Cambridge in 1224; and at Paris in 1230. When once these orders had been founded, all the great schoolmen were either Franciscans or Dominicans. Intellectually, the dogmatic Dominicans were mainly characterised by a conservative orthodoxy, while the emotional Franciscans were less opposed to novel forms of opinion. In Paris, the greatest Dominican teachers were Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) and his favourite pupil, the great Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–7–1274), who brought scholasticism to its highest development by harmonising Aristotelianism with the doctrines of the church. The Angelic Doctor was the foremost of the intellectual sons of Saint Dominic, the saint who (in Dante’s phrase) “for wisdom was on earth a splendour of cherubic light.” Meanwhile, Saint Francis, who was “all seraphic in ardour,” and felt no sympathy whatsoever for the intellectual and academic world, nevertheless counted among his fol- lowers men of academic, and even more than academic, renown. Foremost of these were Alexander of Hales, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus and William of Ockham.