According to Anthony Wood, he was acting as deputy to John Warner, the first Regius Professor of Physic at Oxford, by 1551, having had backing from Walter Wright to switch in 1550 from an unpromising theological career.
at Christ Church in 1554, a tutorial pupil of Francis, has been tentatively identified as Lewis Evans the Catholic controversialist of the later 1560s.
He was provisionally named elect 30 September 1562 in place of John Clement who had gone into exile, and was definitely appointed to the post 12 May 1564.
[1] In June 1569 he was sent to treat the Earl of Shrewsbury who travelled in a litter from Chatsworth House to Wingfield Manor.
While President he took action against the unlicensed medical practitioner Eliseus Bomelius, whom he was obliged to prosecute for practising physic without a license from the college.
Bomelius in letters to William Cecil offered to expose the ignorance of Francis in Latin and astronomy, but later apologised for having circulated false statements.