Austin Friary (also known as the Augustinian Friary) was a priory in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

, England. It was established in 1092 and in 1112 became part of

Barnwell Priory Barnwell Priory was an Augustinians, Augustinian priory at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, Barnwell in Cambridgeshire, founded as a house of Canons Regular. The only surviving parts are 13th-century claustral building, which is a Grade II* listed, and ...

. The priory was located at

Peas Hill Peas Hill is a street in central Cambridge, England.Peas Hill
, Cambridge City Council. I ...

in central

History

The order was founded in the mid-13th century and after being granted a small piece of land near Bene't Street in Cambridge at the end of the 13th century the Friary grew until it covered the site of the present

New Museums Site The New Museums Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located on Pembroke Street and Free School Lane, sandwiched between Corpus Christi College, Pembroke College and Lion Yard. Its postcode is CB2 3QH. The smaller and older of ...

all the way from the end of Peas Hill to Downing Street (then known as Dow Dyers Lane), and from Corn Exchange Street (Slaughter Lane) to Free School Lane (Luttburne Lane). Many of the Friars were also scholars in the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

and in the early 16th century would meet in the White Horse Tavern – situated on the current Queens' Lane – also known as "Little Germany" as it became associated with the nascent

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

movement. The Friary's gatehouse was situated at the end of Peas Hill, around the location of the present 16 Bene't Street. Robert Barnes and

Myles Coverdale Myles Coverdale, first name also spelt Miles (1488 – 20 January 1569), was an English ecclesiastical reformer chiefly known as a Bible translator, preacher and, briefly, Bishop of Exeter (1551–1553). In 1535, Coverdale produced the first ...

were both members of the Friary. When John Leland visited the Friary's library shortly before its dissolution he wrote of five works by

William Ockham William of Ockham, OFM (; also Occam, from la, Gulielmus Occamus; 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small vill ...

, two by

John Capgrave John Capgrave (21 April 1393 – 12 August 1464) was an English historian, hagiographer and scholastic theologian, remembered chiefly for ''Nova Legenda Angliae'' (New Reading from England). This was the first comprehensive collection of lives o ...

and a volume of sermons by Ralph the Almoner of Westminster. A volume of tracts, partly written by Adam de Stockton at Cambridge in 1375 and currently in Trinity College, Dublin is the only book known to have survived from the library. In the centuries after it was closed in the 1530s, the site changed hands many times. Maps of the late-16th century (up to 1592) continue to depict the Friary. The last of the original Friary buildings – the infirmary or guest hall – was demolished in the 1790s. Some of the fabric was incorporated into buildings on the New Museums Site.

References

Monasteries in Cambridgeshire 1092 establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 11th century History of Cambridge Augustinian monasteries in England {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub