GROSSETESTE, Robert, English Roman Catholic prelate: b. Stradbrook, Suffolk, about 1175i d. Buckden, 9 Oct. 1253. He studied law, physics and theology at Oxford and Paris and upon his return to England attained an enviable reputation as a theologian, so much so that in 1214 he became archdeacon of Wifts and in 1224 received the directorate of theology and became first rector scholarum of the Franciscan school at Oxford. In 1232 he took up the cause of the Jews against the king, defending them with great vigor and in 1235 was elected bishop of Lincoln, whereupon he undertook to make radical changes in his diocese and eliminate some of the many abuses prevalent there, the result of which was that though he was pos sessed of great force of character, his high temper and lack of tact and diplomacy led him into innumerable cpntroversies. The most fa mous of these was with Pope Innocent IV, who, desiring to fill the lucrative positions in the church with Italians and Proveficals, in 1253 sent the bishop a request that he appoint his (the Pope's) nephew to the first vacant canonry in the cathedral of Lincoln. This
Grosseteste flatly refused to do, and, as his clergy stood by him in his fight against this abuse, the matter was finally dropped and it is mainly upon this incident that his fame rests. He was, though, a man of great scholarly at tainments, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, mathematics, medicine and music being num bered among them, beside which he was one of the most learned preachers of his time and a voluminous writer. Consult Perry, 'Li f (London 1871) ; Luard (editor), 'Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi quondam Lincolniensis Epistolm' (in the Rolls Series, 1862).