In 1266 the Austin Friars established a house in Oxford with the help of King Henry III, and in 1289 opened another one in Cambridge.
By 1300 they had twenty-two houses, including one that they began in Dublin some time before 1280.
In 1260 (i.e., a mere four years after the Grand Union of the Order), a separate Augustinian Province of England was declared, and a Chapter meeting was held at Clare Priory in 1265.
By the 14th century there were thirty-four houses in England and Ireland, which together contained over 800 members.
Amidst this growth, the members of the Order at Clare Priory acquired a reputation for both sanctity and learning.
They had the advantage of being able to study the works of the greatest theologians in their library.
In 1456 several of this small community had reached the high level of learning required to make them teachers of theology and philosophy in the schools of the Order.
Some learned foreign visitors came to Clare, and friars from Clare travelled to the Continent on occasion.
John of Clare was the first Augustinian to graduate as a Doctor of Divinity of Cambridge; he may have been the same person as John of England, who was associated with an outstanding holy life.
Another Augustinian at Clare, Henry Bederic, became a professor of the Sorbonne in Paris. Little is known of the friary in the latter Middle Ages. An Austin Friar known as a scholar was Thomas Edwardston, chaplain to Lionel of Clarence. At the same time there is evidence that some of the Clare friars were suspect of heresy. Two of their number, Nicholas Bacon and John Oxeford, took part in the Peasants Revolt in 1381.
The medieval age had practices no longer seen. For example, in 1385 Robert de Baybroke, bishop of London, forced Sir Thomas Mortimer and six other men to do public penance for having violated church sanctuary. They had dragged John de Quinton from the Augustinian Church in Clare, cut off his ears, and returned him to sanctuary afterwards. On the Sunday before Lent, 12th February1385, at the hour of Vespers they were made to walk barefooted to the friary, holding candles in their hands. They offered their candles, placed a valuable cloth of gold on the high altar, and were absolved.
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