Time has not erased Robert Grosseteste's achievements. If to the modern eye he appears remote, he was, in fact, a dynamic presence in thirteenth-century England. Rising from poor beginnings, he became chancellor of the still young Oxford University. Later, as Bishop of Lincoln, he ruled over the largest diocese in England, which stretched from the Humber River to the Thames, to Lincoln in the north and Oxford in the south. He would be remembered in the centuries after his death as an ecclesiastical statesman, "a great man in a great age." The magnitude of his intellectual gifts helped extend the boundaries of Western thought.
At Oxford University, Grosseteste left his mark on the institution, which became known for its emphasis on logic, mathematical physics and Aristotelian studies. Around 1215 he received a degree as master of theology. In 1224 he became the first rector of the Franciscans. A scholar of vast energy, he wrote groundbreaking treatises on light, astronomy, psychology and mathematics, opening up the world of science to the logic of inductive inquiry. His scientific work would influence Roger Bacon, among many others.
The translation of ancient texts was an activity that engaged the best minds of his generation. As one of its pioneers, Grosseteste translated Aristotle and other early Greek and Arabic writers. His prodigious activity in this field established him as one of the leading Western scholars of his age and was to have a profound influence on thirteenthcentury learning. "I can only hope," he stated, "that others may be stimulated to enquire more deeply and to discover more than I have been able to."
De Cessatione legalium was written between 1231 and 1235, and it was widely read during Grosseteste's lifetime, most likely by well-educated Christian clerics. Grosseteste analyzes unwritten, natural law versus written, positive law in light of the Scriptures. He criticizes the ceremonial aspects of Mosaic law practiced by early Christians. After Christ's death, observation of these laws became heretical. He also vigorously defends Christian faith. "If what had been preached concerning the Lord were no more than a tissue of lies, it could never have won acceptance ... since falsehood is darkness, of its very nature ephemeral."
Anointed Bishop of Lincoln in 1235, Grosseteste was a brilliant reformer. In 1250, nearing eighty, he journeyed to Lyon where he made a historic appeal to Pope Innocent IV, denouncing corruption by the Curia and the Pope himself. For this he has been called 'the great mauler of the Romans."
Interest in Grosseteste's writings revived during the nineteenth century. Very few copies of the 1658 edition of De Cessatione legalium have survived.
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