When once the Friars Minor had decided that it was both unreasonable and impracticable to forbid the brothers to take any interest in scholarship it was not long before plans were made and the foundations laid of an educational system which should embrace all members of the Order. Mention has already been made of the changes which took place about the year 1230 when the friars' schools at Paris, Oxford and Cambridge all came into existence. By the time of the General Chapter of Narbonne, which was held in 1260, we find an educational system well established with provision for the proper training of teachers to lecture to the friars in each convent. It had now become obligatory on all friars, except the illiterate, to devote part of their time to reading and writing, while the Order gave permission for each province to send two friars to study at Paris.

The general scheme for the education of the friars was as follows. Each convent was to have its own lecturer, partly to give the necessary groundwork to novices and young friars, but also to deliver lectures to the whole community in order to help them in their preaching. Then, in each custody, there was to be set up a school for more advanced work, so that younger men who showed promise might go ahead with their studies without having to go too far afield.