826 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
his use of the Scriptures. Roger Bacon, his ardent admirer, said that no one really knew the sciences but Robert of Lincoln.1 His great influence is attested by the fact that for generations he was referred to as Lincolniensis, " he of Lincoln."
Born in England, and of humble origin, a fact which was made by the monks of Lincoln an occasion of derision, he pursued his studies in Oxford and Paris, and subsequently became chancellor of Oxford. He was acquainted with Greek, and knew some Hebrew. He was a prolific writer, and was closely associated with Adam Marsh.2
No one welcomed the advent of the Mendicant Friars to England with more enthusiasm than did Grosseteste. He regarded their coming as the dawn of a new era, and deliv ered the first lectures in their school at Oxford, and left them his library, though he never took the gray cowl him self, as did Adam Marsh.
On being raised to the see of Lincoln, 1285, Grosseteste set out in the work of reforming monastic and clerical abuses, which brought him uninterrupted trouble till the close of his career. He set himself against drinking bouts, games in the churches and churchyards, and parish parades at episcopal visitations. The thoroughness of his epis copal oversight was a novelty. He came down like a ham mer upon the monks, reports Matthew Paris, and the first year he removed seven abbots and four priors. At Ramsey he examined the very beds, and broke open the monks' coffers like " a burglar," destroying their silver utensils and ornaments.3 To the monks, who were about to choose an abbot, he wrote : "When you choose one to look after your swine, you make diligent search for a person possessing proper qualifications. And you ask the questions, Is he physically capable ? Has he the requisite experience ? Is
1 Solus . . novit scientias. Bridges' ed. , I. 67. Gower, in his confessio amantis, praises the "grete clerke Grosteste."
2 The Mon. Francisc. gives sixty of Marsh's letters to Grosseteste.
3 M. Paris, V. 226. The methods the bishop resorted to for determining the fidelity of the nuns to their vows is also recorded by M. Paris.
§ 129. TWO ENGLISH BISHOPS. 827
he willing to take them into fitting pastures in the morning, to defend them against thieves and .wild beasts, to watch over them at night ? And are not your souls of more value than many swine ? "
The most protracted contest of his life was with his dean and chapter over the right of episcopal visitation.1 The canons preached against him in his cathedral. But Grosseteste cited the cases of Samuel, who visited Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and David, who defended his father's flocks. He was finally sustained by the pope.
In no way did the great bishop win a more sure place in history than by his vigorous resistance to the appointment of unworthy Italians to English livings and to other papal measures. In 1252, he opposed the collection of a tenth for a crusade which had the pope's sanction. He declined to execute the king's mandate legitimatizing children born be fore wedlock. His most famous refusal to instal an Italian, was the case of the pope's nephew, Frederick of Lavagna. The pope issued a letter threatening \vith excommunication any one who might venture to oppose the young man's in duction. Grosseteste, then seventy-five years old, replied, declaring, "I disobey, resist, and rebel."2 Matthew Paris (III. 393), professing to describe the scene in the papal household when the letter was received, relates that Inno cent IV. " raved away at the deaf and foolish dotard who had so audaciously dared to sit in judgment upon his ac tions." Notwithstanding this attitude to the appointment of unworthy Italians, the bishop recognized the principle that to the pope belongs the right of appointing to all the benefices of the church.3
1 Letter 127. See Luard's Introd., p. 114.
2Ep. 128. Adam Marsh referred to the letter "as that fearless answer written with so much prudence, eloquence, and vigor, which will, with God's aid, benefit all ages to come." See Stevenson, p. 312. M. Paris, V. 257, states that Grosseteste declared he would be acting like the devil if he were to deliver the cure of souls over to the Romans, "whom he hated like poison."
3 De omnibus beneficiis cedes, liber e potest ordinare. Ep., 49, Luard's ed., p. 145.