THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF OLD PLYMOUTH. 339 
devoted themselves to the study of divinity, the instruction of the 
young, and the administration of spiritual consolation and advice, 
rather than either to the contemplative life, or to what we should now 
call street preaching. They had important schools at Oxford and 
elsewhere, and much care and attention were given by them to the 
formation of libraries and the care of their books. 
We have no account of the establishment of the Carmelites in 
the West Country. There was but one foundation connected with 
the order, I believe, in either Devon or Cornwall, and that is the 
one which was situated at the east end of Plymouth, in the tithing 
of Sutton Ealf. 
Some Carmelites had, prior to the year 1314, settled down in 
Plymouth, and, as I said just now, as was usual with the mendi- 
cant orders, made things very lively in the town, and uncomfort- 
able for the quiet steady- going clergy of the parish who did their 
work in the old-fashioned way. The advent of a party of preach- 
ing friars in the neighbourhood gave rise to much opposition, ill- 
feeling, and party spirit. 
The preaching friar had no respect whatever for the opinions of 
the vicar of St. Andrew, or for the monks of Plympton, or for 
vested rights of any kind ; he saw sin and misery around, and pro- 
ceeded to do his best to point out the remedy for the one, and 
assuage, as far as in his power lay, the other. He preached, dis- 
tributed alms, he baptized, absolved, communicated, wherever he 
saw occasion, without enquiring whether he was intruding with the 
special work of any one else. The good vicar was horrified to find 
that the white-frocked friar, perhaps dirty and uncouth, preaching 
with rough eloquence now at the market cross, now on the Hoe, 
now on the Barbican, drew the people of Plymouth to hear him ; 
and his surprise was great when he found that the people not 
only listened, but took heed. The monks of Plympton, too, could 
not understand why these friars, without any of the inducements 
which they could hold out, were so sought after. Why could 
not parish priest and monk see that times were altering, that the 
direction of men's minds was being changed, that another spirit 
was working, and that for altered needs there must be altered 
work ? But this they could not see, and for some time the spiritual 
life and energy infused into the masses by the preaching friar 
averted the storm, which at last broke, and involved priest, monk, 
and friar in the general downfall. 
