Excerpt from Registrum Johannis Gilbert, Episcopi Herefordensis, A. D. 1375-1389

The Friars who came to England, devoted to a life of poverty and detachment from the world, in less than a hundred years were occupying some of the highest offices both in Church and State. Their advent aroused opposition and jealousy, and the Black Friars were admitted to the City of Hereford only under pressure from the Pope. In the present register we find a widespread desire to find burial in their cemeteries and to support and enrich their foundations; they are the executors of nobles and kings, their grievances are remedied by special commissions from the Apostolic See' within fifty years no less than three bishops of Hereford2 were taken from the mendicant orders, all of them statesmen of honour and repute, who had held the most coveted positions the Crown had to offer. Of this popularity and influence the original cause was undoubtedly the evangelical fervour and single-minded piety which characterized the brethren. Thus commended to the attention of the great they were much in vogue as confessors, especially to the higher classes. Who could obtain a licence to substitute their services for those of their parish priest. Kings employed them as keepers of their consciences, and their advancement to important and lucrative offices of state became inevitable. But the great advantage the Friars possessed over other ecclesiastics was their mobility; it was a part of their system to move without restraint from one convent to another, they mixed freely with all classes, their dress was at once a passport and a disguise. It was, therefore, natural that they should be employed as agents and messengers where confidence and intelligence were required, and as a necessary consequence they were involved in most of the political movements and intrigues of their time. The career of John Gilbert well illustrates this; a simple Dominican friar, he held in succession the bishoprics of Bangor, Hereford, and S. David's, was Chancellor of Ireland, Lord Treasurer of England, and for several years a member of the commission which governed the realm of England in the name of Richard II. There is no evidence that this success was attained by any unworthy.

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