ABSTRACT
English historiography acquired two new elements in the thirteenth century. One was the chronicles by friars, the other was the first town chronicle (the chronicle of London, which will be discussed in the next chapter). In contrast to the monks and Augustinian canons, the friars were not prolific historians. They lacked the institutional roots and stability of the older orders, and therefore could not draw on established historiographical traditions, accumulated archives and large libraries. Nevertheless three English friars wrote histories in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.1 And one of these works, Thomas of Eccleston's De Adventu Fratrum Minorum in Angliam (On the Coming of the Friars Minor to England)2 is unique. It is not a general chronicle but a history specifically of the Franciscan order in England, from its arrival in 1224 to die mid-thirteenth century. It has a purpose and a theme. It aimed at edifying the friars of Eccleston's own day and, by recording the praiseworthy endeavours of their predecessors, to inspire them to emulation.
