The English Dominican House of Blackfriars Hall in Oxford, commonly known simply as Blackfriars, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Its status is that of a "permanent private hall", and it is located in St. Giles'. It is a centre for the study of Roman Catholic theology, and admits men and women of any faith.
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Despite the fact that many of the dates and figures of Oxford's medieval and early life are imprecise, Blackfriars' history is unusually well documented, largely as a result of the hall being part of an international fraternity of scholarship, which was able to monitor and document its fortunes, even during times of the hall's collapse.
The Dominicans arrived in Oxford on 15 August 1221, at the instruction of St Dominic himself, in the final era of the monk's life. As such, the hall has some claim to be heir to the oldest tradition of teaching in Oxford, a tradition that preceeds both the aularian houses that would characterise the next century and the collegiate houses that would characterise the rest of the University's history.
Like all the monastic houses in Oxford, Blackfriars came into rapid and repeated conflict with the University authorities, as monks claimed all the rights and privelleges of University membership but also claimed immunity from the University discipline or regulation. Relations with townspeople were also consistently difficult, but the reasons for this are difficult to assess dispassionately, as virtually all contemporary accounts are marked with deep bias on one side or the other.
With the Reformation, all monastic houses, including Blackfriars, were suppressed. The Dominicans did not return to Oxford for some 400 years, until 1921 when Blackfriars was refounded, within 600 metres of the original site.
The hall was formally re-admitted into the University in 1994 as a permanent private hall.History
