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Some Notes upon the Career of Robert Grosseteste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

Josiah Cox Russell
Josiah Cox Russell
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Extract

The seventh centenary of the death of Robert Grosseteste, the brilliant theologian and scientist who became bishop of Lincoln, was celebrated in 1953 and stimulated some interest in him and his work. The same year saw the publication of an outstanding study of his contribution to the origins of experimental science. The author of this study regards Grosseteste as “the first medieval writer to recognize and deal with the two fundamental methodological problems of induction and experimental verification and falsification which arose when the Greek conception of geometrical demonstration was applied to the world of experience.” Grosseteste's eminent position in science and theology thus makes the problem of his early life and education more significant both as to sources of influence and dates and places of education.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , July 1955 , pp. 197 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1955

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References

1 Notably a lecture by Sir Maurice Powicke which appears in the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library XXXV (1953), 482–507 and a volume upon phases of Grosseteste's career and writings by Oxford medievalists edited by D. Callus and R. W. Hunt soon to appear.

2 Crombie, A. C., Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science, 1100–1700 (Oxford, 1953), p. 10Google Scholar. For other references of importance to this study see also pp. 10–11, 74–76, 84–106 and 132–34.

3 See especially Little, A. G., “The Franciscan School at Oxford in the Thirteenth Century,” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum XIX (1926), 3–74Google Scholar.

4 In my “The Preferments and ‘Adiutores’ of Robert Grosseteste,” Harvard Theological Review XXVI (1933), 161–72Google Scholar.

5 Bardney's poem is published in H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, II, 325–41. For a criticism of it see my “Richard of Bardney's Account of Robert Grosseteste's Early and Middle Life,” Medievalia et Humanistica II (1944), 45–54Google Scholar. The manuscripts are listed in Thomson, S. H., The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, 1235–53 (Cambridge, 1940)Google Scholar and their implications discussed in my “Phases of Grosseteste's. Intellectual Life,” Harvard Theological Review XLIII (1950), 93–116Google Scholar.

6 D. Callus presents a somewhat different interpretation of the years 1214–24 in his “The Oxford Career of Robert Grosseteste,” Oxoniensia X (1945), 42–72Google Scholar.

7 A copy of the charter appears in British Museum, MS Reg. 11 B ix, fol. 25r. It is discussed in my “Preferments and ‘Adiutores’ ” (see above) pp. 162–63. Bardney, chs. viii–xv. For the handwriting see Thomson, The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, pp. 22–23.

8 “Sed quia ipse (Hugh), retribuat ei Deus, per specialem dilectionem me suo unierat cordi et animo, quem vestre tam specialis caritatis amplexata est latitudo.” Roberti Grosseteste- -Epistolae (Rolls Series), p. 136.

9 See under Giraldus Cambrensis in the Dictionary of National Biography.

10 These are edited respectively by Murray, J., Le Chateau d'Amour de Robert Grosseteste, Evêque de Lincoln (Paris, 1918)Google Scholar and by Meyer, P., “Notices du MS Rawlinson, Poetry 241,” Romania XXIX (1900), 1–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the manuscripts see Thomson, Writings, pp. 152–59.

11 Cornelius, Roberta D., The Figurative Castle (Bryn Mawr, 1930), especially pp. 42–44Google Scholar.

12 Especially in lines 75, 193 and 1246.

13 These numbers are of the lines in the two poems.

14 Brooke, I., English Costume of the early Middle Ages (London, 1930), p. 48Google Scholar.

15 Ibid., p. 52.

16 Murray, p. 45; Meyer, pp. 62–64.

17 Giraldi Cambrensis Opera (Rolls Series), VI, 47; Roger of Hoveden (Rolls Series), IV, 76; Walter of Hemingburgh (English Historical Society), I, 229.

18 See my “Phases of Grosseteste's Intellectual Life,” pp. 107–110.

19 Giraldi Cambrensis Opera (Rolls Series) I, 249.

20 Bardney, ch. xvi; Crombie, pp. 74–77.

21 Richardson, H. G., “The Schools of Northampton in the Twelfth Century,” English Historical Review LVI (1941), 595–605CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pp. 604–05. For the introduction of Arabic knowledge into England see a chapter of that title in Haskins, C. H., Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science (Cambridge, Mass., 1924)Google Scholar or in the revised edition of 1927.

22 See references in Oxford, Balliol College, MS 271, fol. 56v and 88v as a clerk, and fol. 6v and 79v with no indication of status.

23 “Injurias mihi a domino Menevensi episcopo preter merita nuper irrogatas, per magistrum Robertum in scedula conscriptas, destinando vestre discretioni significare curavi.” Giraldi Cambrensis Opera (Rolls Series), I, 307. Gerald's better known letter (ibid., p. 249) has the following expression, “Tam in negotiis vestris variis et causarum decisionibus — cum in horum peritia fideliter prestet.”

24 “Hinc est quod vestrae paternitati nostra devotio preces porrigit affectuosas, rogans et supplicans quatinus negotiis nostris, quae presentium lator R. clericus noster vobis ostendet, et illi praecipue contra Menevensem episcopum — similiter et negotiis praesentium latoris hujus, clerici et familiaris nostri ecclesiis suis, sicut vobis intimabit.” Ibid., I, 308. He may be the Master Robertus Secretarius at Lincoln sometime in 1196–98. The Registrum Antiquissimum of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, V, 34. He was not the Robertus de Capella, chaplain of Bishop Hugh, who appears frequently in charters and died about the same time as Hugh. Cf. Magna Vita S. Hugonis Ep. Line. (Rolls Series), p. 358.

25 For this see my “Phases of Grosseteste's intellectual Life,” pp. 100–03.

26 Master J. Grim appears in the Cartulary of the Abbey of Eynsham, ed. Salter, H. E. (Oxford, 1908), II, 45–46Google Scholar. For Mr. Alardus, rector of the schools, see Rashdall, H., The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, rev. by A. B. Emden and F. M. Powicke (Oxford, 1936), III, 39Google Scholar. Bishop Hugh was not in England on June 25, 1214 when Cardinal Nicholas of Tusculum sealed the charter of reformation of the schools of Oxford and gave them a chancellor. Cf. Rot. Litt. Pat. p. 114b; Rot. Chart., I, 199, 202b. The charter does not indicate whether the ‘chancellor’ named was of the diocese or of the university, but since he is named after the archdeacon, it cannot refer to the chancellor of the diocese who had precedence over the archdeacon.

27 Bardney, ch. xxiii.

28 For Mr. John of St. Albans, who has been confused with others, see my Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England (London, 1936), p. 73. The clerks were Mr. Robert of St. Germain, Mr. Elias of Derham, Mr. Simon Langton and Mr. Gervase of Hobregge, Dean of St. Paul's. Historie des Ducs de Normandie, p. 197. See also Bliss, Calendar of Papal Documents, I, 63. Gerald of Wales favored the French side. Powicke, F. M., “Gerald of Wales,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library XII (1928), 389–410CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially p. 400.

29 See my “Phases of Grosseteste's Intellectual Life,” pp. 98, 115–16.

30 Bardney, ch. xxi–ii.

31 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora (Rolls Series), II, 528.

32 The Registrant Antiquissimum of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, III, 255. Rot. Litt. Pat., pp. 166b, 174b, 175. See also ibid., p. 59; Rot. Litt. Claus., I, 121b. He was a brother of the courtier, Philip d'Aubigné. Registrum Antiquissimum, III, 216 and also III, 141–42.

33 Rotuli Hugonis de Welles, III, 48. For the dedication see Arnold-Forster, F., Studies in Church Dedications (London, 1899), III, 27Google Scholar.

34 Rotuli Ricardi Gravesend, p. 177.

35 Rotuli Hugonis de Welles, III, 54.

36 Roberti Grosseteste Epistolae (Rolls Series), p. 242.

37 In the 20th year (December 20, 1228–December 20, 1229). Rotuli Hugonis de Welles, II, 307. (W. still archdeacon), pp. 308, 309. Registrum Antiquissimum, III, 231.

38 Roberti Grosseteste Epistolae, pp. 43–44.

39 Registrum Antiquissimum, III, 235.

40 Thomson, Writings of Robert Grosseteste, p. 157.

41 Roberti Grosseteste — Epistolae, p. 68. For the career of John Blund see my Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, pp. 56–58.

42 Roberti Grosseteste — Epistolae, pp. 59–60. For him see also my Dictionary, pp. 73–75.

43 Roberti Grosseteste — Epistolae, p. 250.

44 Chronica Majora (Rolls Series), V, 393, 404.

45 Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. W. de G. Birch, I, 258. From Add. Ch. 21, 881. It contains also on the front the name of Robert. I examined also seals on Add. Chs. 21,991 and 10,639. These were from 1239–41 A.D.

46 See ibid., I, 271 for seal of Louis VIII of France: Douët d'Arcq, Inventaires et Documents, etc. Collection des Sceaux (Paris, 1863) I, p. xl (seals of Philip Augustus and Louis VIII); II, 545 (Garin, bishop of Senlis, high official at court of Philip Augustus); II, 534 (William of Aurillac, bishop of Paris) and others in the same volume.

47 Catalogue of Seals in the Department, etc. For his predecessor see I, 258; for William of Blois, I, 257–58; for Richard, bishop of Salisbury, I, 341.

48 For Richard, Bishop of London, ibid., p. 287; his successor, William, used the same device. Ibid., p. 288.

49 Canterbury Cathedral, ibid., p. 190; Edmund of Abingdon, pp. 194–95.

50 For the French practice see A. Teulet, ed. Layette du Trésor des Chartes (Paris, 1863): Philip Augustus, I, 552–53, 560b; bishops of Paris, I, 548, 554. For Hugh of Welles, British Museum, Add. Ch. 21,999; Grosseteste, Add. Chs. 10,639; 21,881.

51 For Louis VIII's practice see Petit-Dutallis, C., Étude sur la vie et le règne de Louis VIII (1187–1226) (Paris, 1894), p. xiiGoogle Scholar. Grosseteste dated his year from sometime in February. He gives February 1, 1249 as in his 14th year and February 27 and March 7, 1249 in his 15th year. Rotuli R. Grosseteste, pp. 112, 118, and 394. He was elected on March 25, 1235 and consecrated on June 2. Hugh died on February 2, 1235. However, it would appear that some of his archdeacons did not follow this practice. Note the sequence within the years in Rotuli R. Grosseteste, pp. 9–16, 23–26, 37–40, 400–01, 407–08 and 417–18, but see also p. 323.

52 Philip Augustus counted the time from his consecration. Delisle, L., Catalogue des Actes de Philippe-Auguste (Paris, 1856), p. lxxiiiGoogle Scholar. So did the English kings.

53 Shropshire Archaeol. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Transactions, New Series, I (1878), 182.

54 Ibid., p. 175.

55 Capes, W. W., ed. Charters and Records of Hereford Cathedral (Hereford, 1908), p. 68Google Scholar. A William Foliot held the title apparently from about 1200 until after 1219. Ibid., pp. 37, 39, 43, 46, 47, 48. See also Le Neve, Fasti under the title.

56 Rotuli R. Grosseteste, pp. 330, 332, 336.

57 For this manuscript see Little, A. G. and Douie, D., “Three sermons of Friar Jordan of Saxony, the Successor of St. Dominic, preached in England A.D. 1229,” English Historical Review LIV (1939), 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar, especially pp. 1–3; Thomson, Writings of Robert Grosseteste, pp. 13–17, 34–35.

58 Little and Douie, p. 3.

59 Little and Douie, pp. 2–3; Thomson, Writings of Robert Grosseteste, pp. 14–15.

60 See description in Little and Douie, pp. 1–3.

61 Thomson, Writings of Robert Grosseteste, p. 15.

62 Ibid., p. 15.

63 Suggested in my Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England, p. 112 and confirmed by Kuttner, S. and Rathbone, E., “Anglo-Norman Canonists of the Twelfth Century,” Traditio VII (1949–51), 332Google Scholar.

64 “Vir bene morigeratus et magne literature,” Ann. Monast. (Rolls Series) IV, 82. “Morigeratus” apparently means striving to please.

65 “Cui successit Magister Robertus Grosseteste, vir honestus et religiosus atque in lege divina sufficienter eruditus.” (Rolls Series) III, 102.

66 “Cui successit Magister Robertus cognomento Grosseteste, vir quidem nimis literatus, a primis annis scolis educatus,” Chronica Majora (Rolls Series), III, 306.

67 “Magnus enim habetur philosophus, Latinis et Grecis literis ad plenum eruditus, zelator justicie, lector in theologia scolis, predicator in populo, castitatis amator, persecutor simonialium.” Ibid., V, 393.