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 St. Edmund of Abingdon, who, though a pious and learned man, was quite unequal to the difficulties of the time; whereas Grosseteste was the strong man who stuck to his post, battling against wrongs and abuses, and in spite of apparent failure, always upholding what he believed to be right and true.

About this time Grosseteste was involved in a quarrel with the King over an appointment to the prebend of Thame. He refused to institute the King's nominee on the ground that he was exempted from obeying the papal provisions. The proceedings of the papal Court were far too elaborate and complicated for me to be able to describe them here, but it would seem that the Pope was in the habit of issuing "provisions" for the appointment of foreigners in Italy and elsewhere to English benefices, but at the same time the Pope issued to English bishops "exemptions allowing them to disobey the 'provisions,' " if these documents contained no clause forbidding them to do so. It was a curious and complicated arrangement. Grosseteste refused to institute the nominee in question on the ground that he was exempted from obeying the Papal provision, and that the document presented to him contained nothing that did away with the exemption. The King was very wroth, and insisted on the appointment being made. But Grosseteste threatened sooner to leave the country and to put his see under an interdict. This prospect was so terrifying that the King was induced to give way, and to make peace with the Bishop.

Grosseteste was next engaged in a quarrel with the Abbot of Bardney, who was the head of a great