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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2016
This brief, popular work on confession, here for convenience abbreviated as QC, is ascribed to Robert Grosseteste (ca. 1168–1253), bishop of Lincoln (1235–53), in most of the known manuscripts, and circulated within many copies of collections of his sermons, in association with other texts by him, or on its own. This text enjoyed a very wide readership, as there are presently known to be thirty-six manuscripts of it (see below), all in English hands, of which eleven were copied in the thirteenth century (see MSS C, Cs, G, Gv, Hk, Js, Pt, R7, R9, U, and Z, below). Twenty-seven of these thirty-six copies were reported by S. Harrison Thomson in his catalogue, published in 1940, of Grosseteste's writings. The list below could probably be extended after further searching, especially in codices of theological or pastoral miscellanea, which are often inadequately catalogued.
1 Harrison Thomson, S., The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, 1235–1253 (Cambridge, 1940; repr. New York, 1971), 160–91, at 172. See also Schneyer, J. B., Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150–1350 [Autoren: R–Schluß (W)] (Münster, 1973), 176–91; Bloomfield, M. W., Guyot, B.-G., Howard, D. R., and Kabealo, T. B., Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices, 1100–1500 A.D. (Cambridge, MA, 1979), 416–17 (no. 4926); Newhauser, R. and Bejczy, I., A Supplement to Morton W. Bloomfield et al., Incipits of Latin Works on the Virtues and Vices, 1100–1500 A.D. (Turnhout, 2008), 279 (no. 4926); and Sharpe, R., A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland Before 1540 (Turnhout, 1997), p. 543. At Professor Richard Sharpe's website (http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/sharpe/) there is access to a listing of library records, examined as part of the “British Medieval Library Catalogues” project, that identify possible lost copies of QC. See Sharpe, , Handlist, 641, at “De confessione (serm. 15),” of the List of Identifications, where such terms in booklists as “tractatus Lincolniensis de confessione” may perhaps refer to Sermon 15, and also ibid., 644, at “Sermones.”.Google Scholar This edition and study are dedicated, with great respect and affection, to the memory of James Joseph McEvoy, Fr. (1943–2010), the mentor of so many students of Grosseteste.Google Scholar A fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a Research Grant-in-Aid from the Catholic University of America generously funded this project, which is part of a larger study of Grosseteste's sermons. Professor Poos, L. R., dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at CUA, made it possible for Frank Mantello to accept the N. E. H. award.Google Scholar We are greatly indebted to Mr. Mark Statham, librarian of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, for the time and trouble he gave to producing and providing digital copies of MSS G and Gv. Dr. James Ginther (St. Louis University) and Ms. Eva Oledzka (Bodleian Library, Oxford) kindly responded to queries about MSS Bg and Hk, respectively. We are also very grateful to Mr. Brandon Parlopiano, a doctoral candidate in the Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies at the Catholic University of America, who produced digital copies in PDF format of microfilms of many of the manuscripts. Some microfilms were loaned for this purpose by Mr. Jonathan Bengston, librarian of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, whom we are happy to thank here for his generosity.Google Scholar
2 Thomson, , Writings , 172, 125 (no. 79).Google Scholar
3 See Mantello, F. A. C., “Letter CXXI Ascribed to Robert Grosseteste : A New Edition of the Text,” Franciscan Studies 39 (1979): 165–79, at 165–66 n. 3.Google Scholar
4 Thomson, , Writings , 10–22. The five manuscripts are Cambridge, Trinity College B. 15.20 (T), and four in the British Library, London: Cotton, Otho D.X (O); Royal 6.E.V. (R6); Royal 7.E.II (R); and Royal 7.F.II (Rf).Google Scholar
5 Only the arguments in §§3 and 10 are unascribed to any authority. These appear to be Grosseteste's own contribution to the question of why one should confess.Google Scholar
6 See the thoughtful discussion of this period in Grosseteste's life, “From Science to Theology,” in Southern, R. W., Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe , 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1992), 170–232.Google Scholar
7 Grosseteste, Robert, Tabula , ed. Rosemann, P.W., in Opera Roberti Grosseteste Lincolniensis , ed. McEvoy, J. J., vol. 1, CCM 130 (Turnhout, 1995), 235–320. See also Rosemann, P. W., “Robert Grosseteste's Tabula,” in Robert Grosseteste: New Perspectives on His Thought and Scholarship , ed. McEvoy, J. J. (Turnhout, 1995), 321–55.Google Scholar
8 “Super Iohannis Iam <epistolam> omelie I” (Grosseteste, , Tabula , ed. Rosemann, , 309).+omelie+I”+(Grosseteste,+,+Tabula+,+ed.+Rosemann,+,+309).>Google Scholar
9 Ibid.Google Scholar
10 For an edition of three sets of dicta or sentences attributed to Bernard see “Bernardus Claraevallensis, Sententiae,” in Sancti Bernardi Opera , ed. Leclercq, J., Talbot, C. H., and Rochais, H. M., vol. 6.2 (Rome, 1972).Google Scholar
11 These writings include Deus est [= Sermon 32], ed. Wenzel, S., Franciscan Studies 30 (1970): 218–93; Templum Dei , ed. Goering, J. and Mantello, F. A. C. (Toronto, 1984); De modo confitendi et paenitentias iniungendi, ed. iidem, in “The Early Penitential Writings of Robert Grosseteste,” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 54 (1987): 52–112; Notus in Iudea Deus, ed. iidem, Viator 18 (1987): 253–73; and Perambulauit Iudas, ed. iidem, Revue bénédictine 96 (1986): 125–68.Google Scholar
12 On Walter, see Lawrence, C. H., “Cantilupe, Walter de (c.1195–1266),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , ed. Matthew, H. C. G. and Harrison, B. (Oxford, 2004), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4571. On the treatise Omnis etas hominis, see Goering, J. and Taylor, D. S., “The Summulae of Bishops Walter de Cantilupe (1240) and Peter Quinel (1287),” Speculum 67 (1992): 576–94. Although Grosseteste recommends confessing the circumstances of sins in other writings — see in particular Notus in Iudea Deus , ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 269–70, and Perambulauit Iudas, ed. iidem, 167 — these discussions have little in common with that in QC. Google Scholar
13 This method Grosseteste expounds in great detail in his treatise Perambulauit Iudas (ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 148–58); see also his Notus in Iudea Deus (ed. iidem, 269–70).Google Scholar
14 These three modes of sinning are explored most fully in Grosseteste's, De modo confitendi (ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 80–91); see also Goering, and Taylor, , “The Summulae,” 589 n. 58.Google Scholar
15 Grosseteste invokes this same principle in a letter, ca. 1231, to the Countess of Winchester, and again in a letter of ca. 1243 to the abbot and monks of Fleury; see Letters 5 and 108 in Roberti Grosseteste episcopi quondam Lincolniensis epistolae , ed. Luard, H. R. (London, 1861), 36 and 319, trans. Mantello, F. A. C. and Goering, J., The Letters of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (Toronto, 2010), 68 and 336.Google Scholar
16 This method Grosseteste develops most fully in Perambulavit Iudas (ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 149–55) and Notus in Iudea Deus (ed. iidem, 270–71).Google Scholar
17 In none of his other penitential writings does Grosseteste recommend confessing transgressions of the Decalogue. He discusses the Commandments briefly in Templum Dei (ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 34–35).Google Scholar
18 Grosseteste discusses the seven principal vices in Templum Dei , ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 35–36; De modo confitendi, ed. iidem, 82–91; Notus in Iudea Deus, ed. iidem, 266–68; Perambulauit Iudas, ed. iidem, 158–66; Deus est, ed. iidem, 264–91.Google Scholar
19 The issue of delicacy in the confessional is also addressed by Grosseteste, in De modo confitendi (ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 91), and Deus est (ed. iidem, 247).Google Scholar
20 These issues are addressed also in Grosseteste's, De modo confitendi (ed. Goering, and Mantello, , 92–95) and Deus est (ed. iidem, 292–93).Google Scholar
21 These are printed in Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., Councils and Synods with Other Documents Relating to the English Church, vol. 2.1: A.D. 1205–1265 (Oxford, 1964), 294–321. See also Cheney, C. R., English Synodalia of the Thirteenth Century (London, 1941; repr. Oxford, 1968, with new introduction), 90–109.Google Scholar
22 Powicke, and Cheney, , Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1, 305; cf. Goering, and Taylor, , “The Summulae,” 577.Google Scholar
23 See Powicke, and Cheney, , Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1, 207–9 (introduction) and 214–26 (texts). On Stainsby, Alexander, see Vincent, N., “Master Alexander of Stainsby, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1224–1238,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46 (1995): 615–40, and idem, “Stainsby, Alexander of (d. 1238),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (n. 12 above), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37103.Google Scholar
24 See Goering, and Taylor, , “The Summulae,” 576–94. In his reissue of OE, Quinel replaced Cantilupe's preface with a new one of his own composition and added a postscript, but the body of Cantilupe's treatise is transmitted fully and faithfully in Quinel's text; see Goering, and Taylor, , “The Summulae,” 584.Google Scholar
25 References to Grosseteste's QC are to the text printed below; references to Cantilupe's OE are to the edition of the text as reissued by Bishop Quinel and published in Powicke, F. M. and Cheney, C. R., Councils and Synods with Other Documents Relating to the English Church , vol. 2.2: A.D. 1265–1313 (Oxford, 1964), 1059–77.Google Scholar
26 Cheney, , English Synodalia , 121.Google Scholar
27 Powicke, and Cheney, , Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1, 265–66.Google Scholar
28 See p. 348, above, and also the postscript in the earliest manuscript (London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, MS 801A, fol. 55r) of OE, printed by Goering and Taylor: “Hic tractatus habeatur in singulis ecclesiis in diversis parochiis sub pena unius marce et singuli sacerdotes illum addiscant et sciant. Alioquin et si super eo requisiti fuerint et respondere nescierint tamquam insufficientes repellantur. Item sacerdotes in ecclesiis suis sepe dicant subditis inferius annotata que de constitutionibus sinodi nostri duximus extrahenda” (“The Summulae,” 593).Google Scholar
29 See Councils and Synods , 2.1, 266–67. The seven manuscripts in this list that contain both the statutes and a copy of QC are: A (our R9), B (our A), C (our R7), F (our G), J (our Z), W (our Pt), and Z (our Js).Google Scholar
30 See ibid., 267.Google Scholar
31 See Gieben, S., “Thomas Gascoigne and Robert Grosseteste: Historical and Critical Notes,” Vivarium 8 (1970): 56–67, at 62 n. 6.Google Scholar
32 On Maynsford, see Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 , 3 vols. (Oxford, 1957–59), 2:1250.Google Scholar
33 See Wenzel, S., Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif (Cambridge, 2005), 79.Google Scholar
34 See Bloomfield, , Incipits of Latin Works (n. 1 above), 218 (no. 2479) and 188 (no. 2096), and Newhauser, and Bejczy, , Supplement (n. 1 above), 143 (no. 2096).Google Scholar
35 Nichols, A. E. (An Index of Images in English Manuscripts from the Time of Chaucer to Henry VIII, c. 1380–c. 1509: Cambridge I [London, 2008], 51 [no. 76]) assigns this manuscript to the fourth quarter of the fourteenth century.Google Scholar
36 The Lyons dossier has been edited by Gieben, S. (“Robert Grosseteste at the Papal Curia, Lyons 1250: Edition of the Documents,” Collectanea Franciscana 41 [1971]: 340–93). The information posted at Parker Library on the Web (http://parker-web.stanford.edu) about this manuscript incorrectly identifies these documents as Grosseteste's “Epistola 127.”.Google Scholar
37 On Nicholas, see Sharpe, , Handlist (n. 1 above), 399. For his written defense of the Lincoln chapter's rejection of Grosseteste's right to visit and correct its members, see Mantello, F. A. C., “Bishop Robert Grosseteste and His Cathedral Chapter: An Edition of the Chapter's Objections to Episcopal Visitation,” Mediaeval Studies47 (1985): 367–78; trans. Mantello, and Goering, , Letters of Robert Grosseteste (n. 15 above), 433–37.Google Scholar
38 See Goering, J., William de Montibus (c. 1140–1213): The Schools and the Literature of Pastoral Care (Toronto, 1992), 211–21.Google Scholar
39 See Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1 (n. 21 above), 267, and Goering, , William de Montibus, 227–60.Google Scholar
40 See Grosseteste, Robert, De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, R. C. and King, E. B. (Oxford, 1987), xi.Google Scholar
41 See Grosseteste, Robert, Hexaëmeron , ed. Dales, R. C. and Gieben, S. (Oxford, 1982), xiv–xvii.Google Scholar
42 See Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1 (n. 21 above), 267.Google Scholar
43 See Bloomfield, , Incipits of Latin Works , 118 (no. 1227).Google Scholar
44 See Hunt's, R. W. “corrections and additions” (559, no. 374) to the reprint (Oxford, 1973) of Coxe, H. O., Laudian Manuscripts, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1885).Google Scholar
45 See Grosseteste, , De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , xii–xiii.Google Scholar
46 See ibid., xii.Google Scholar
47 Thomson, , Writings (n. 1 above), 11.Google Scholar
48 See Grosseteste, , Hexaëmeron , ed. Dales, and Gieben, , xiv–xvii.Google Scholar
49 See Grosseteste, , De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , x.Google Scholar
50 See Councils and Synods , 2.1, 267. Powicke, and Cheney, chose this manuscript (see 266) as the basis of their edition of Grosseteste's Constitutiones, reporting selected variants from ten other copies. There is a list of twenty-three manuscripts of these statutes in Cheney, , English Synodalia (n. 21 above), 111–15.Google Scholar
51 See Goering, , William de Montibus (n. 38 above), 227–60 (Numerate) and 304–33 (Similitudinarium).Google Scholar
52 See n. 36 above and Mantello, F. A. C., “Letter CXXXI Ascribed to Robert Grosseteste: A New Edition of the Text,” Franciscan Studies 39 (1979): 165–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 See Gieben, , “Robert Grosseteste at the Papal Curia” (n. 36 above), 345.Google Scholar
54 See Grosseteste, Robert, De cessatione legalium , ed. Dales, R. C. and King, E. B. (Oxford, 1986), xxi–xxii.Google Scholar
55 See Grosseteste, , De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , xiii.Google Scholar
56 Thomson, , Writings , 20.Google Scholar
57 See Gieben, , “Robert Grosseteste at the Papal Curia,” 345.Google Scholar
58 See Grosseteste, , Hexaëmeron , ed. Dales, and Gieben, , xiv–xvii.Google Scholar
59 See Grosseteste, , De cessatione legalium , ed. Dales, and King, , xx.Google Scholar
60 See Grosseteste, , De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , xiii.Google Scholar
61 Sermon 32 is the confessional tract Deus est , ed. Wenzel, (n. 11 above), and MS Royal 6.E.V is Wenzel's MS C (see Deus est, 226–27).Google Scholar
62 See Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1 (n. 21 above), 267.Google Scholar
63 See ibid.Google Scholar
64 See Goering, , William de Montibus (n. 38 above), 107–38.Google Scholar
65 See van Graes, Ortwin [Orthuinus Gratius, Ortwinus Gratius], Fasciculus rerum expetendarum & fugiendarum , ed. Brown, Edward, 2 vols. (London, 1690), 2:250–57. Gieben, (“Robert Grosseteste at the Papal Curia,” 346) assigned the siglum “Br” to this text when consulting it for his edition of the Lyons documents.Google Scholar
66 See Grosseteste, , De cessatione legalium , ed. Dales, and King, , xx, and De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , xiv.Google Scholar
67 See Mantello, and Goering, , Letters of Robert Grosseteste (n. 15 above), 11–12.Google Scholar
68 See Goering, , William de Montibus , 472–96, especially 474, and idem, “The Diffinicio Eucaristie Formerly Ascribed to Robert Grosseteste,” Journal of Theological Studies, n.s., 37 (1986): 91–104. There is another copy of this Diffinicio in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 28436; see Glauche, G., Katalog der lateinischen Handschriften der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek München: Clm 28255–28460 (Wiesbaden, 1984), 269.Google Scholar
69 See Goering, , “Diffinicio Eucaristie,” 96.Google Scholar
70 See Mantello, F. A. C., “‘Optima Epistola’: A Critical Edition and Translation of Letter 128 of Bishop Robert Grosseteste,” in A Distinct Voice: Medieval Studies in Honor of Leoard E. Boyle, O. P. , ed. Brown, J. and Stoneman, W. P. (Notre Dame, 1997), 280–88, and Mantello, and Goering, , Letters of Robert Grosseteste, 29–30 n. 26.Google Scholar
71 See Grosseteste, , De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , xv.Google Scholar
72 See Mantello, and Goering, , Letters of Robert Grosseteste , 11–12.Google Scholar
73 See Mantello, , “Letter CXXXI” (n. 52 above).Google Scholar
74 See Thomson, , Writings (n. 1 above), 160; Grosseteste, , Deus est , ed. Wenzel, (n. 11 above), 227; Mantello, , “‘Optima Epistola,”’ 287.Google Scholar
75 See Ker, N. R. and Piper, A. J., Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries , vol. 4: Paisley–York (Oxford, 1992), 691–92.Google Scholar
76 See Councils and Synods , vol. 2.1 (n. 21 above), 267.Google Scholar
77 See Mantello, F. A. C., “Letter CXXX of Bishop Robert Grosseteste: A Problem of Attribution,” Mediaeval Studies 36 (1974): 144–59.Google Scholar
78 See Grosseteste, , De decem mandatis , ed. Dales, and King, , xviii.Google Scholar
79 Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem , ed. Gryson, R et al., 4th rev. ed. (Stuttgart, 1994).Google Scholar