the Church was being ruthlessly pillaged and her ministers put to
rebuke, there was more intellectual activity in the country than had
existed for centuries. The schools at Oxford were attracting students
from far and near; and when, in consequence of the disgraceful murder
of three _clerics_ in 1209, apparently at the instance of King
John, the whole body of masters and scholars dispersed--some to
Cambridge, others to Reading--it is said their number amounted to
3,000. These were for the most part youths hardly as old as the
undergraduates in a Scotch university in our own time; but there was
evidently an ample supply of competent teachers, or the reputation of
Oxford could not have been maintained.

It was during the year after the Chapter of the Dominicans held at
Bologna in 1220, that the first brethren of the order arrived in
England. They were under the direction of one Gilbert de Fraxineto,
who was accompanied by twelve associates. They landed early in
August, probably at Dover. They were at once received with cordiality
by Archbishop Langton, who put their powers to the test by commanding
one of their number to preach before him. The Primate took them into
his favour, and sent them on their way. On the 10th of August they
were preaching in London, and on the 15th they appeared in Oxford,
and were welcomed as the bringers-in of new things. Their success was
unequivocal. We hardly hear of their arrival before we learn that
they were well established in their school and surrounded by eager
disciples.

Be it remembered that any systematic training of young men to serve
as evangelists--any attempt to educate them directly as preachers
well furnished with arguments to confute the erring, and carefully
taught to practise the graces of oratory--had never been made in