Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/62

 GROSSETESTE

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GROSSETESTE

unusual interest in mathematical and scientific ques- tions. He wrote a commentary on the " Physics" of Aristotle; and his own scientific works included studies in meteorology, light, colour, and optics Amongst his mathematical works was a criticism of the Juhan calendar, in which he pointed out the neces- sity for the changes introduced in the Gregorian. He attempted a classification of the various forms of knowledge ; and few indeed, among his contemporaries, can have had a more encyclopedic range. Nor did he neglect the practical side of life. He had \\ alter of Henley's "Treatise on Husbandry" translated from the Latin, and drew up himself some rules on estate management, known as " Les Reules Seynt Robert", which throw much light on the agricultural conditions of the time. Finally, lest we should think that the claims of art had been neglected, his contemporaries celebrate his love of music. It is not surprising that Grosseteste's reputation as a philosopher and a uni- versal genius long survived him. Few thirteenth-cen- tury writers are as frequently quoted as "Robertus Lincolniensis", and even after the invention of print- ing many of his writings were issued and re-issued, especially by the presses of Italy. His scientific in- terests naturally won for him in a later age the compli- ment of being popularlv spoken of as a magician.

It was while at Oxford that Grosseteste formed an intimate and lifelong friendship with the newly ar- rived Franciscans. It is quite possible that he was chancellor when the friars first came to Oxford, the Dominicans in 1221 and the Franciscans three years later; he at anv rate befriendeil the latter in a very practical manner by being the first lecturer in the school which was one of the earliest of their very sim- ple buildings, .^hort of becoming a friar himself, as indeed he at one time thought of doing, he could not have identifieil himself more closely with the sons of St. Francis, and his influence with them was propor- tionately great. He must have helped to give the English Franciscans that devotion to learning which was one of their most distinguishing characteristics, and which affected the whole history of the order. Though it was contrary to their founder's own ideal of "poverty", the friars without it would have lost a most powerful means of influencing a century m which intellectual interests played so large a part. Grosse- teste and the Friars Minor were inseparable for the rest of his life. The most intimate of his friends was Adam Marsh, the first Franciscan to lecture at Oxford, a man of great learning and an ardent reformer. Adam's letters to his friends give us much valuable information about Grosseteste, but unfortunately the answers have not been preserved. The Bishop of Lincoln could do even more for the friars than the Chancellor of Oxford. He extended the sphere of their evangelizing work, and facilitated the relations, at times a difficult enough task to perforin, between the secular and monastic clergy and the Franciscans In a letter to Gregory IX he spoke enthusiastically of the inestimable benefits which the friars had con- ferred on England, and of the devotion and humility with which the people flocked to hear the word of life from them. The diocese which for eighteen years Grosseteste administered was the largest in England ; it extended from the Humber to the Thames, and in- cluded no less than nine counties; and the work of government and reform was rendered particularly difficult by the litigious character of the age. In every direction the bishop would find powerful cor- porations exceedingly tenacious of their rights. From the very first he revived the practice of visitations, and made them exceedingly searching. His circular letters to his archdeacons, and his constitutions en- lighten us on the many reforms which he considered nece.ssary both for the clergy and their flocks.

These' visitations, however, brought the bishop into conflict with the dean and chapter, who claimed ex-

emption for themselves and their churches. The dispute broke out in 12:59 and lasted six years. Grosse- teste discussed the whole question of episcopal author- ity in a long letter (Letter cxxvii, "Rob. Grosseteste Epistolaj", Rolls Series, 1861) to the dean and chapter, and was forced to suspend and ultimately to deprive the dean, while the canons refused to attend in the chapter house. There were appeals to the pope and counter appeals and several attempts at arbitration. Eventuallv, Innocent IV settled the question, in the bishop's favour, at Lyons in 124.i. The visitations af- fected the majority of the numerous religious houses in the diocese as well as the secular clergy, and in his very first tour Grosseteste deposed seven abbots and five priors. Onlv in one of these cases was there any moral turpitude involved, and indeed he seldom complains of the moral conduct of the monks; his chief grievance against them was connected with their control over the parishes. Even in the twelfth century more than two-thirds of the parish churches are said to have been under the control of the monasteries, and in many cases the latter made merely temporary and uncertain arrangements for the care of souls. Grosseteste made it his object to insist on a worthy and resident parish clergy by compelling the monasteries to appoint and pay permanent vicars. Throughout his whole episco- pacy this question occupied much of his energy. His greatest difficulty was with the Cistercian houses, which were exempt from his rights of visitation, and a desire to remedy this state of affairs was one of the reasons which induced him to visit the pope at Lyons in 1250.

His efforts were partially successful, but the rigour with which he visited the monasteries and nunneries under his rule led the St. Alban's chronicler, Matthew Paris, to call him a "persecutor of monks"; and it is probable that at times he was unnecessarily severe. In 124.3, during a vacancy of the archiepiscopal see, the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, actually ex- communicated him. Though he treated the sentence with contempt, he had again to get the pope's assists ance to bring the dispute to an end.

The reputation which Gro.sseteste has acquired since the Reformation has been due in large part to his rela- tions with the papacy. That he opposed to the ut- most of his power the abuses of the papal administra- tion is certain, but a study of his letters and writings should long ago have destroyed the myth that he dis- puted the plena jmlcstas of the popes. This error, which has been common among non-Catholic writers from Wvclif till recent years, can partly, however, be explained by the exaggerations and inventions of Matthew Paris, and by a^confusion of two men having the same name. The letter in which Grosseteste ex- pressed most strongly his resistance to what he con- sidered the unrighteous demands of the pope was addressed to "Master Innocent". It was assumed even by Dr. Luard, the editor of Grosseteste's letters, in the Rolls Series, that this correspondent was Inno- cent IV, whereas as a matter of fact he was one of the pope's secretaries then resident in England. It is, however, admitted by all recent historians that Grosse- teste never denied the pope's authority as Vicar of Christ and Head of the Church. What he did main- tain was that the power of the Holy See was " for edi- fication and not for destruction", that the commands of the pope could never transgress the limits laid down bvthe law of God, and that it was his duty, as bishop, to resist an order that was " for manifest destruction ' . In such a case " out of filial reverence and obedience 1 disobey, resist, and rebel". It is impossible to discuss here, or even to enumerate, the abuses which drew so stron" an expression of his position from a man who had constantly sho\\'n his devotion to the papacy. The Engli.sh people at large complained chiefly of the enormous revenue which the pope and the Italians drew from the countrj'; Grosseteste, however, fully