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exists, he goes on to argue in substance, for the sake of the sheep the ministry is instituted that those in it may watch over the flock, not that they may kill and destroy it. To allow, therefore, men to obtain from the ministry merely what they could get for themselves would be a scandal and a crime. "It is impossible, therefore, that the most holy Apostolic See, to which all power is given by the Holy of Holies, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the apostle declares: 'to build up not to destroy,' can either order, or command, or request, or connive at anything approaching a sin of this kind, so hateful, detestable, and abominable to our Lord Jesus Christ and so hurtful to the human race." This is impossible to conceive, for it would be an abuse of the power of the Holy See, which is "clearly most holy and supreme." Therefore, the bishop concludes, believing as I do, out of the very duty of obedience and fidelity by which I am bound, "as to both parents," to the Apostolic See," and out of that love of the union with that See in the body of Christ—in a filial and obedient spirit I do not obey, I refuse and I rebel."1

When Grosseteste's attitude was explained to the pope, he expressed himself very strongly against the bishop's declaration. He contemplated taking severe measures against him, declaring that even the king of England was his vassal and depended upon his good pleasure for his kingdom; but he allowed himself to be restrained by the more prudent counsels of the cardinals. Some of his advisers even went so far, according to the English chronicler, as to say that in their opinion what the bishop had written was the truth. The Spanish cardinal, Giles de Torres, archbishop of Toledo, spoke in the highest terms of Grosseteste, and, pointing out that his reputation for learning and 1 Matthew Paris, v. 389-392.

sanctity was not confined to England, declared that any condemnation of his attitude in this question would only serve to stir up the public sentiment against the Roman Curia.'

Bishop Grosseteste did not act hastily in this matter. The application for English benefices to satisfy the claims of foreign ecclesiastics upon the gratitude of the Curia, had become so numerous about the middle of the century, that in 1252 he determined to make an inquiry into the incomes then possessed by foreigners in England, many, if not most, of whom were absent from their benefices, and, indeed, from the country. He found that the abuse had grown greatly in the then pontificate; and, in fact, that Innocent IV had appointed as many foreigners to such livings as all his predecessors put together. The total income thus derived by foreign ecclesiastics at the date of Grosseteste's inquiry was put at the enormous sum of 70,000 marks, the ordinary revenue of the king of England at that time being hardly one third of that amount. Allowing for every possible exaggeration of these figures, the state of the matter revealed by the inquiry initiated by the bishop was sufficiently grave to make him determine at all costs to arrest the evil, if possible. His opinion on the matter appears in a strong communication made by him to parliament this same year, 1252. He wished, he said, that all might be true and faithful children of mother Church, from which they had received the regeneration of baptism. It was, however, impossible to tolerate the giving away to foreigners what the pious devotion of founders had intended for divine worship, for the support of the ministers of the Church, and for the care of the poor. This was especially detrimental when these foreigners "lived in remote countries, and were 2 Ibid., 355.

1 Matthew Paris, v. 393.

men who not only aimed at carrying off the fleece, but knew not even the look of their flocks. They were ignorant of the language, neglected the cure of souls, and yet collected and carried away money, to the great impoverishing of the kingdom." English people were too patient, or too foolish; and if they did not make a stand, their country, which was of old free, would find itself saddled with the payment of a perpetual tribute. He exhorts them, therefore, to put an end to these provisions and impositions made by the Apostolic See, and not to allow men to reap where they had not sown, or those to claim their food who had not been labourers.'

During the heat of the summer, 1253, Bishop Grosseteste was seized with what proved to be his last illness, at his manor of Buckden. He at once sent for his friend the Dominican, Friar John of St. Giles, a skilled doctor of medicine as well as a trained theologian. With him he held long conversations about the state of the Church and the evils which, in his opinion, seemed most to threaten it. Of course, chief amongst these was the appointment of foreigners and young people to the English benefices, and the consequent neglect of souls; but even above this in importance, the dying bishop seems to place as an evil of the times, the influx of money lenders and usurers into the country, which was in his opinion mainly caused by the exactions of the papal officials. They had never existed in the country previously, he declared, and he gave instances to show that the conditions for lending money made by these men, who called themselves Christians, and were under papal protection, were harder than those made by the Jews themselves. Bishop Grosseteste's whole soul seemed filled with darkness and foreboding at the thought

1 Grosseteste, Epist., 442.

of the many evils which were, in his opinion, afflicting religion at this time, and which made him content to leave the world, where so much seemed hopelessly amiss. He died on 9th October, 1253,' and according to the testimony of people at the time, which the chronicler did his best to sift and prove, there were sounds of bells in the air on the night when he passed away; Pope Innocent IV, so it was said, dreamed that the bishop came to him and gave him a wound in his side, from which he never recovered; and later, miracles were said to have been wrought at his tomb and through his intercession. In after years attempts were made to procure his canonisation, but they failed, although for centuries the English people reverenced his memory. A modern writer says of him: "Probably no one had a greater influence upon English thought and English literature following his time than Bishop Grosseteste; few books written then will be found that do not contain quotations from 'Lincolniensis'!" Roger Bacon writes: "Only one knew science like the bishop of Lincoln, and Tyssyngton speaks of the comparison between him and modern doctors, being like the comparison of the sun to the moon at an eclipse."

It is only right to give here the substance of the reply made by Pope Innocent IV to the archbishop and bishops in May, 1253, to a representation sent to him in consequence, no doubt, of Bishop Grosseteste's agitation. "The Roman Church," he says, "has to bear on its shoulders all common burdens, and is ready to lighten the load of each individual. -It has lately been told us by the messengers, whom you sent to us, that the English Church is burdened in an intolerable way by the Apostolic See by the provision of foreigners to benefices, to the great loss of the said Church, 1 Matthew Paris, v. 400-407.

and to the scandal of the English, since they assert that these provisions exceed the yearly sum of fifty thousand marks. These messengers consequently beg in your name that the clemency of the Apostolic See may provide some remedy." The pope then goes on to say that, from the bottom of his heart, he is distressed at the burdens of the Church, which are specially grave in the days in which they were living. Especially is he sorry that the English Church should feel the burden, since it has always shown its devotion to the Roman Church. But the times are specially evil, and he is constantly being importuned on all sides, and even forced to do many things, sometimes wholly against his will, sometimes with little desire to do them. In this way, some clerics, "worn out and greatly exhausted, after great labours," appeal to him for the favour of an apostolic provision, which out of paternal compassion he had granted them. Others were supported in their requests for rewards by those who could not be gainsaid: whilst there were others, again, whose appointments were useful to the churches themselves. On consideration of the complaints addressed to him by the English Church, he had come to the conclusion, he says, to propose the following arrangement, "should your opinion," he adds, "agree with ours": that the English ecclesiastics should tolerate the appointment of Italian clerics to English benefices to the annual value of eight thousand marks.

In the midst of all these difficulties, however, the internal life of the Church was by no means neglected. It would be to take an altogether wrong view of this period to suppose that all the energies of ecclesiastics were exhausted in their efforts to secure some mitigation of the taxation, which seemed calculated to interfere seriously with the purposes for which the English benefices had been

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