When he accepted the mitre there was general dis- order among the ecclesiastics subjected to him ; there was a total want of settled discipline ; there was con- stant recalcitration against authority ; there was re- fractoriness in his own chapter, which eventuated in protracted contention ; ignorance, licentiousness, simo- ny, and greed were prevalent. There was twofold and simultaneous danger from royal rapacity and papal ex- action. His position was full of annoyance and haz- ard, but he addressed himself at once to the correction of ai)uses, to the resistance to encroachment, anrl to the earnest performance of his solemn function?. He first set his own house in order, and reformed the episcopal establishment. A detailed and interesting ordinance
was prepared for the governance of his household (Man, Francisc. Append, ix). The sons of the highest nobles, among them those of Simon de Jlontfort, were intrust- ed to him for training. He is supposed to have com- posed for these eVeves his manual J)e Morihus Pueri ad Afensam, which is an early type of the popular Stans Picer ad Mensam, of which so many variations have been published by ]\Ir. Furnivall in The Babees' lioke. In the first year of his episcopacy he commenced the visitation of the parishes, deaneries, archdeaconries, etc., under his rule. He frequently encountered dis- obedience, but he proceeded with energy and firmness. The enmity thus provoked stimulated an attempt to poison him. His life was saved hy his friend and leech, John de S. Giles. One of his reformatory meas- ures has a special interest for the student of mediaeval literature and antiquities. He suppressed the celebra- tion of the "Feast of Fools" in his cathedral, designat- ing it as '■'■ V imitate plenum et voluptatibiis spttrciim, Deo odibile et dce?noni amabile" {Ep. xxxii). The charac- ter of this festival is copiously illustrated in the addi- tions to Du Cange (tit. Kakndce). Warton has con- founded it with the Festum Asinorum, which took place on the Nativity, not on the Circumcision. The bishop also prohibited Scot-Ales in chapters, sj'nods, and on holy days. His earnestness for the spiritual improve- ment of his diocese, for the maintenance of religious purity, and for the advancement of knowledge, is shown by his Pastoral Letter or Constitutions in 1238 (Ej). lii) ; bj' his refusal to confer benefices on unworthy persons, even when powerfully connected and sustain- ed {Epp. xlix, lii, Ixxiv) ; by his opposition to the king's appointment of clerks as justices in ej're (Ap7>. xxvii, xxviii, Ixxii) ; bj"- his anxiety to purchase from John de Foxton his copies of the sacred Scriptures (Ep. xxxiii) ; b}' his interference in behalf of the scholars of Oxford after their riotous attack on cardi- nal Otho, and by his consideration for them on other occasions. To Grosseteste is due the special jurisdic- tion conceded to the university' in 12i4, a privilege ob- tained by Cambridge only sixtj' years later. His rig- orous episcopal visitations induced expostulations from Adam de Marisco, and furnished a text for the cen- sures of Matthew Paris. Thej' culminated in the great contention of 1239 with his canons, which was onl}' settled six years later bj' pontifical decree. Its commencement is marked In' an elaborate epistle or essay, which asserts the episcopal riglits througli all the ponderous forms of scholastic reasoning (A/), cxxvii). The question of the limits of authority and obedience, and of the respective boundaries of concurrent or con- flicting authorities, was indeed the main root of discord in all the great debates of Church and State, of the pa- pacy and the empire, in the thirteenth centurj'.
While this controversy was in progress Grosseteste displayed his accustomed energy in manifold direc- tions. He maintains an intimate correspondence with the king, with the queen, with the archbishop of Can- terbury, with the legate, with the cardinals, with the chiefs of the Franciscans and the Dominicans, to both of which orders he was warmly attached. He gives constant advice to De Montfort in his oscillating fur- tunes ; he constantly seeks it for himself from Adam de Marisco. He keeps up and extends his studies in many ways. With the assistance of a Greek monk from St. Alban's and other scholars, he translated the spurious Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, and other Greek works. This version of the Testaments ma}' have originated the tradition that he translated the Bible. He resisted the scandalous appointment of Italians, Poitevins, Proven9als, and Savoyards to the rich benefices as they felljjg^nt. He opposed the extravagance and favoritism orthe king, and in 1244 secured the united-reply of the " Committee of XII on royal expenditures" that they would not grant the aids demanded without a pledge of the reformation of abuses and the expenditure of the money by the com-
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