|
|
 Had the
leaders of the thirteenth century heeded this preacher, many of the
disasters of the following three centuries might have been avoided. Robert
was a peasant lad from Suffolk, born about 1175. He distinguished himself at
Oxford in law, medicine, languages, natural sciences, and theology. He
became what is now called Chancellor of Oxford University.
In 1235, he was elected Bishop of Lincoln, in area the largest diocese in
England. He promptly visited all the churches in the diocese and quickly
removed many of the prominent clergy because they were neglectng their
pastoral duties. He vigorously opposed the practice by which the Pope
appointed Italians as absentee clergy for English churches (collecting
salaries from said churches without ever setting foot in the country). He
insisted that his priests spend their time in the service of their people,
in prayer, and in study. He went on a pilgrimage to Rome, where he spoke out
boldly against ecclesiastical abuses. Back in England, he spoke against
unlawful usurpations of power by the monarch, and was one of those present
at the signing of the Magna Carta.
Grosseteste's scholarly writings embraced many fields of learning. He
translated into Latin the Ethics of Aristotle and the theological works of
John of Damascus and of the fifth-century writer known as Dionysius the
Areopagite. He was skilled in poetry, music, architecture, mathematics,
astronomy, optics, and physics (one of his pupils was Roger Bacon). His
writings on the first chapter of Genesis include an interesting anticipation
of modern cosmological ideas. (He read that the first thing created was
light, and said that the universe began with pure energy exploding from a
point source.) He knew Hebrew and Greek, and his Biblical studies were a
notable contribution to the scholarship of the day.
|
|
