Obs. exc. Hist. [ad. med.L. frātria, fratreia, f. frāter brother; app. the word was mixed with the adoption of Gr. φρᾱτρεἰα, f. φρᾶτωρ guild-brother. Cf. FRIARY.] a. A fraternity, brotherhood. b. A convent of friars, friary.
1532. Tindale, Exp. Matt. vi. 16–18. And as for the ypocrysy of the fratrye where they eate but inuysible fleshe, or that is interprete to be no fleshe is spoken of in other places.
a. 1571. Jewel, On Thess. (1611), 114. He selleth the mercies of God, the blood of the martyrs, the works of supererogation, the merits of his fratries, the blood of Christ.
1581. Hanmer, Answ. Jesuit’s Challenge, 6 a. Here the treasor house of the church, and the the merite Cell of orders, Munkry, fratry, and societies is established.
1887. C. W. Boase, Hist. Oxford, 68. Agnellus of Pisa, the first Provincial of the order in England, built a school in the Fratry of Oxford, and persuaded Robert Grostête to lecture there.
