And  if  priors  do  not  see  to  the  observance  of  these  penalties
they  shall  be  obliged  themselves  to  undergo  them,  otherwise
let  them  be  sharply  proceeded  against  on  the  evidence  of  the
Visitors  at  the  Provincial  Chapter.  Further,  those  students
who  are  found  by  the  provincial  to  be  exceedingly  negligent
in  their  attendance  at  the  scholastic  exercises,  or  incapable,
shall  be  dismissed  from  their  studies  and  some  other  occupa-
tion shall  be  found  for  them."

The  General  Chapter  of  Toulouse  in  1328,  lamenting  the
decline  in  the  studies,  repeats  the  same  enactment:  "None
should  be  promoted  to  holy  orders  nor  sent  to  study  logic
until  they  are  proficient  in  grammar,  nor  should  they  be  sent
to  study  philosophy  until  they  are  proficient  in  logic.  Nor
should  any  be  sent  to  study  theology  until  they  are  considered
proficient  in  grammar,  logic,  and  philosophy."

These  houses  of  general  study  to  which  only  exceptional
merit  gave  an  entrance  were  few  even  in  the  days  of  the
Order's  greatest  glory.  England  had  from  the  first  Oxford
and  then  Cambridge  as  well ;  in  France  and  the  other  pro-
vinces were  a  few  more  as  Paris  and  Bologna.  There  were
besides  a  few  convents  devoted  to  special  studies,  such  as
the  priories  devoted  in  Spain  to  the  study  of  Arabic  and  the
missionary  schools,  where  the  languages  of  the  East  were
taught  to  those  volunteering  for  such  enterprises,  and  the
convent  of  Sens,  where  numerous  friars  had  been  specially
collected  to  work  on  a  revision  of  the  Latin  version  of  the
Scriptures.  But  apart  from  these  exceptional  priories  the
rest  of  the  province  was  symmetrically  arranged  for  the
methodical  prosecution  of  study.
