During the night of 9th October 1253, as Robert Grosseteste lay dying at Buckden, various witnesses reported hearing a mysterious ringing of bells. It was a fittingly dramatic end for a bishop who, nearly eight hundred years after his death, continues to attract a disproportionate amount of attention, and has become one of the most-studied bishops of the English middle ages. In Robert Grosseteste and the 13th-Century Diocese of Lincoln, Philippa Hoskin explores an aspect of his episcopate which has been relatively understudied--his pastoral vision--bringing together his scholarship and his pastoral practice to show how his ideas shaped his episcopate.
Following an introduction which summarises Grosseteste's life and reputation, chapter 1 ("The Background to Reform") provides some important background information about the world in which Grosseteste operated. Hoskin identifies two key changes: a new emphasis on reform, especially pastoral care, along with increased episcopal bureaucracy, which made the bishop a more distant figure. These developments created, she suggests, a tension between papal ideal and administrative reality, which were not always easy to reconcile, although the evidence of synodal statutes suggests that the English episcopate did at least attempt to implement the reforms required by the Fourth Lateran Council.
"Grosseteste's Theory of Pastoral Care," the focus of chapter 2, was well-developed even before he became bishop of Lincoln in 1235, having been shaped by his scholarly interests and his practical experience in episcopal households and as an archdeacon. In many ways his ideas were conventional: his emphasis on the value of confession, for example, was entirely of his time. At the heart of his pastoral theory was a strong belief in the importance of order and hierarchy, which meant that pastoral care was not just a way to save individual souls, but also the route to global salvation. If everyone fulfilled their proper roles and the duties of their station, it would be possible to repair the relationship between God and humanity which had been fractured by the Fall. Linked to this was his unusually strong sense of his own responsibility and culpability: he seems to have genuinely believed that he was personally responsible for everyone in his diocese, a belief which shaped his approach to the episcopal office.
His exercise of that office, and the application of this theory, are the focus of the next four chapters of the book. Chapter three ("The Principal Shepherds of the Sheep: Grosseteste's Administration within the Diocese") considers the evidence of Grosseteste's rolls. In contrast to those of his predecessor, Hugh of Wells, they are disorderly and sporadically updated- which might be interpreted as evidence of shoddiness, but which Hoskin prefers to see as evidence for Grosseteste's preference for personal involvement over centralised administration. His complicated feelings about archdeacons are also examined: they were both an essential part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, but also a danger to his own soul, since he would ultimately be answerable for their shortcomings.
Chapter four ("Friars and Visitations: Grosseteste's Interventions in the Diocese") explores the role of friars in pastoral care: Grosseteste had close links to both the Franciscans and the Dominicans, and actively encouraged them to preach, teach and hear confessions in his diocese. He also used them as a source of knowledge about parish-level happenings, seeking information which his archdeacons and rural deans were unable (or perhaps unwilling) to provide. The chapter also highlights Grosseteste's personal tours of his diocese, during which he carried out conventional episcopal activities such as preaching and confirmation, as well as parish visitations--a rather novel approach, at least within the context of thirteenth-century England. Hoskins finds that, somewhat unsurprisingly, both strategies caused considerable resentment, and arguably created divisions rather than healing them.
Grosseteste's approach to parish priests (the subject of chapter five, "A Royal Priesthood: Grosseteste's Parish Priests") was similarly hands-on. Keen to improve standards, he worked to prevent pluralism and absenteeism, and did his best to ensure that all incumbents had adequate spiritual and temporal resources. His ideal priest was resident in his parish, and constantly occupied with protecting the spiritual, moral and practical welfare of his flock. A priest who failed in his task would damn himself, his flock, and his bishop, and therefore bad priests must be dealt with harshly, by removal from office where necessary. Ill-educated priests, on the other hand, were handled more sympathetically, and could improve their knowledge with help from neighbouring priests.
Chapter Six ("Illuminating the Darkness: Grosseteste's Panoptic Vision of the Diocese") begins with a consideration of Grosseteste's attitude to the Jews, a group who he judged extremely harshly, even by the standards of the day. His relations with members of the lay elites were shaped by his belief that such individuals had a personal responsibility for the salvation of those under them, and in particular that their exercise of patronage (c. 40% of parishes in the diocese of Lincoln had a lay patron) made them responsible for the pastoral care provided by their nominees. Despite this, his counsel seems to have been welcomed by at least some prominent figures, such as Margaret de Lacy and Simon de Montfort. His attempts to oversee monastic pastoral care, on the other hand, caused considerable resentment, as reflected in Matthew Paris' judgement that he was a tyrant.
The final chapter of the book considers Grosseteste's impact beyond his diocese, and his posthumous legacy. Tracing his networks, Hoskin finds evidence for close connections with, and influence over, many of his episcopal contemporaries, including saint-bishops such as Edmund of Abingdon and Richard Wyche. It was after his death, however, that the bishop's ideas about tyranny, good governance and divine order became particularly significant, influencing Simon de Montfort and the Montfortian bishops in their rebellion against Henry III, and thus shaping the course of English politics.
Grosseteste's ultimate assessment of himself, included in a late letter to Adam Marsh, was a largely negative one: he was concerned about both his own spiritual state and the condition of the church, and felt that he had not entirely achieved his pastoral aims. Others were more positive: Marsh saw him as a model of episcopal practice, and an inspiration for other bishops, and in the late thirteenth century he was the subject of a series of unsuccessful canonisation attempts. Hoskin's assessment is measured: her Grosseteste is energetic and well-meaning, a man who judged others harshly but measured himself by the same unattainable standards. His commitment to his diocese (the largest in England) was undoubted, even if his attempts to take good care of it did not always have the desired effect.
Overall, then, this is a valuable addition to the flourishing field of Grosseteste studies, combining in-depth knowledge of the bishop himself (Hoskin's last book was an edition of Grosseteste's episcopal rolls) with a strong sense of the world in which he operated. As a case study of one man's approach to pastoral care, it provides a valuable counterpart to broader-based studies such as William Campbell's The Landscape of Pastoral Care in Thirteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 2018). There is also much of interest here for the historian of the medieval episcopate, an area which has experienced something of a resurgence of interest in recent years. Hoskins provides further food for thought on topics covered in studies such as Michael Burger's Bishops, Clerks, and Diocesan Governance in Thirteenth-Century England (Cambridge, 2012) and Sophie Ambler's Bishops in the Political Community of England (Oxford, 2017). Although Grosseteste was in many respects an exceptional bishop (or at least an exceptionally-well documented one), his experiences were far from unique, and raise important questions about the nature and functions of episcopacy in thirteenth-century England. Consequently, Robert Grosseteste and the 13th-Century Diocese of Lincoln is a must-read not only for fans of its protagonist, but for anyone who wants to understand what it meant to be a medieval bishop.