Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/284



, one of them added, 'If we were to be silent the very stones would cry out,' on which a portion of the church behind the dean's seat outside the choir fell down (, iii. 638; Dunstable Annals, Annal. Monast. iii. 149). The quarrel continued its course; Grosseteste excommunicated the proctor of the chapter; they excommunicated his dean. The dean, William de Tournay, was deprived, and Roger de Weseham put in his place. The chapter produced a forged paper to the effect that the see of Lincoln had come to an end and been restored by William Rufus, and therefore the king might interfere with it as being a royal foundation. At length a direct appeal was made to the pope, and after dragging on for several years more it was settled at Lyons by a bull of Innocent IV, 25 Aug. 1245, entirely in favour of the bishop, who obtained full power over the chapter, though the dean and canons were excused from an oath of obedience to the bishop on their collation. While all this was going on the bishop had serious troubles with others; in 1241 he had a quarrel with the abbot of Westminster, costly and injurious to both, as Matthew Paris tells us, respecting the right to the church of Ashwell in Hertfordshire, and a still more serious one with the king about the prebend of Thame, which Henry III had conferred on John Mansel [q. v.] by a papal provision, though it had been previously conferred on Simon of London. Grosseteste went to London prepared to excommunicate John Mansel and all disturbers of the peace of the church. Mansel gave way, and the king followed his example, in fear lest Grosseteste should leave the country and place the see under an interdict. In 1243 the bishop became embroiled with the chapter of Canterbury, the see being vacant, as Boniface was not yet consecrated, and the chapter claiming metro-political power during the vacancy. A clerk who had a dispute with the abbot of Bardney laid a complaint before the archdeacon of Lincoln. The archdeacon cited the abbot to appear before him, and on his refusal cited him before the bishop. The abbot refused to acknowledge the bishop's authority, and Grosseteste excommunicated him. When the bishop sent lay visitors to Bardney to bring the monks to submission, the door was shut in their faces. He threatened to bring ruin on the convent, and the abbot appealed to the Canterbury chapter. The bishop then deposed the abbot, and the king seized on the temporalities. The Canterbury monks then assembled fifty priests of the diocese, and solemnly excommunicated the bishop. Grosseteste had always a violent temper, and on this occasion he threw the letters of the convent on the ground, though the seal contained the effigy of St. Thomas of Canterbury. Both parties then appealed to the pope (Innocent IV), who issued directions to relax the sentence of excommunication without prejudice to either party, a proceeding which by no means satisfied the bishop.

In 1244, in consequence of troubles at Oxford between the scholars and the Jews, Grosseteste obtained for the scholars the privilege that in future all quarrels as to loans, or taxes, or hiring, or buying provisions should be decided before the chancellor of the university. The same year he made a great stand against the king as to his treatment of William de Raleigh, bishop of Winchester, even threatening to lay the royal chapel at Westminster under an interdict, and with the help of the pope and the archbishop prevailed on the king to give way. He was also one of a committee of twelve, partly clergy and partly laymen, to discuss the king's demand of a subsidy, and prevailed on the other prelates to stand by the common opinion in the matter. 'It is written,' said he, 'if we are divided we shall soon die.' It was this year that by his means the election of Robert Passelew to the bishopric of Chichester was annulled, Grosseteste having examined him and found him incompetent. On 18 Nov. he set out in company with Adam de Marisco [q. v.] for Lyons, where the pope then was. After obtaining the decision of the quarrel with his chapter in his favour he returned by Beaune and Paris, landing on 14 Oct. 1245 in the Isle of Wight, and bringing back several commissions from the pope. In 1247 he was at Westminster when Henry III presented the vase containing the supposed blood of our Lord, sent by the masters of the templars and hospitallers. His address, vindicating the possibility of its genuineness, is preserved by Matthew Paris (Additamenta, 72, vi. 138). In 1248 he was at the parliament in London, summoned by the king to obtain a fresh subsidy. He continued the visitations of his diocese, in 1249 visiting Dunstable and Caldwell, then going to Oxford, where he met the chancellor, proctors, and masters at Osney, and gave them many instructions for their course of study. He was again this year embroiled with the king, through his excommunicating the sheriff of Rutland, in consequence of his refusing to imprison a criminous clerk whom Grosseteste had deprived and excommunicated. Though he set such store on his own right of visitation, he was very decided in opposing Archbishop Boniface's somewhat similar claim, and in 1250, when the archbishop held a visitation