41 Facts About Robert Grosseteste

Robert Grosseteste, known as Robert Greathead or Robert of Lincoln, was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln.

Robert Grosseteste was born of humble parents in Suffolk, but the associations with the village of Stradbroke is a post-medieval tradition.

Robert Grosseteste appears not to have received any form of benefice from Bishop William, and on the latter's death in 1198, the household dissolved.

Robert Grosseteste's movements are not clear in the next two decades or so, but he seems to have spent some time in France during the years of the interdict over England, and acted as a papal judge-delegate, in company with Hugh Foliot, in or around 1216.

However, the evidence for this comes from a late thirteenth century anecdote whose main claim is that Robert Grosseteste was in fact entitled the master of students.

Robert Grosseteste's reasons were due to changing attitudes about the plurality of benefices, and after seeking advice from the papal court, he tendered his resignations.

Robert Grosseteste lectured on the Psalter, the Pauline epistles, Genesis, and possibly on Isaiah, Daniel and Sirach.

Robert Grosseteste led disputations on such subjects as the theological nature of truth and the efficacy of the Mosaic Law.

Robert Grosseteste preached at the university and appears to have been called to preach within the diocese as well.

Robert Grosseteste collected some of those sermons, along with some short notes and reflections, not long after he left Oxford; this is known as his Dicta.

Robert Grosseteste instituted an innovative programme of visitation, a procedure normally reserved for the inspection of monasteries.

Robert Grosseteste expanded it to include all the deaneries in each archdeaconry of his vast diocese.

Robert Grosseteste twice incurred a rebuke from Henry III upon this subject although it was left for Edward I to settle the question of principle in favour of the state.

The committee rejected the demand, and Robert Grosseteste foiled an attempt on the king's part to separate the clergy from the baronage.

Robert Grosseteste claimed not only that Boniface was threatening the health of the church but that the pope was just as guilty for not reining him in and that that was symptomatic of the current malaise of the entire church.

Robert Grosseteste continued to keep a watchful eye on ecclesiastical events.

Robert Grosseteste numbered among his most intimate friends the Franciscan teacher, Adam Marsh.

Robert Grosseteste realised that the misrule of Henry III and his unprincipled compact with the papacy largely accounted for the degeneracy of the English hierarchy and the laxity of ecclesiastical discipline.

Robert Grosseteste is buried in a tomb within his memorial chapel within Lincoln Cathedral.

Robert Grosseteste was already an elderly man, with an established reputation, when he became a bishop.

Robert Grosseteste was known to equally critical towards everyone, and was known to often express his opinions regardless of status.

Robert Grosseteste's morals were high and he recognised that even those of the church could be corrupt and worked to fight against that corruption.

Robert Grosseteste anticipated, in these fields of thought, some of the striking ideas to which Roger Bacon subsequently gave a wider currency.

Robert Grosseteste has been recognised in many ways for his knowledge and contributions to the sciences.

In 2014, The Robert Grosseteste Society has called for a statue to be erected so that he may be recognised for his achievements.

Robert Grosseteste wrote a number of early works in Latin and French while he was a clerk, including one called Chateau d'amour, an allegorical poem on the creation of the world and Christian redemption, as well as several other poems and texts on household management and courtly etiquette.

Robert Grosseteste wrote a number of theological works including the influential Hexaemeron in the 1230s.

Robert Grosseteste was a highly regarded author of manuals on pastoral care and produced treatises that dealt with a variety of penitential contexts, including monasteries, the parish and a bishop's household.

In 1242, having been introduced to the Greek work by John of Basingstoke, Robert Grosseteste had the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs brought from Greece and translated it with help of a clerk of St Albans:.

Robert Grosseteste wrote a number of commentaries on Aristotle, including the first in the West of Posterior Analytics, and one on Aristotle's Physics, which has survived as a loose collection of notes or glosses on the text.

Robert Grosseteste is best known as an original thinker for his work concerning what would today be called science or the scientific method.

Robert Grosseteste did introduce to the Latin West the notion of controlled experiment and related it to demonstrative science, as one among many ways of arriving at such knowledge.

Robert Grosseteste was the first of the Scholastics to fully understand Aristotle's vision of the dual path of scientific reasoning: generalising from particular observations into a universal law, and then back again from universal laws to prediction of particulars.

Robert Grosseteste said further that both paths should be verified through experimentation to verify the principals involved.

Robert Grosseteste supported this conclusion by looking at light, which he believed to be the "first form" of all things, the source of all generation and motion.

Robert Grosseteste had read several important works translated from Greek via Arabic, including De Speculis by Euclid, Meteorologica and De Generatione Animalium by Aristotle, and directly from Arabic, such as Liber Canonis by Avicenna.

Robert Grosseteste is believed to have had a very modern understanding of light and colour, which is shown by his scientific treatises De Luce and De Colore.

Robert Grosseteste argued that light is an infinitely small particle which was the first form of everything within the universe that multiplied itself indefinitely that resulted in a finite magnitude which was physical matter.

Robert Grosseteste described the birth of the Universe in an explosion and the crystallisation of light into matter to form stars and planets in a set of nested spheres around Earth.

Robert Grosseteste came to the conclusion that, as light dragged the matter of the universe outward and expanded the universe, the density must decrease as the radius increases.

The reason for this seems to be because it was rumoured that Robert Grosseteste's ghost was responsible for the death of the Pope.