Commontide
Proper 22
Liturgical Color: White/Gold
The 18th Sunday after Trinity
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in continual godliness, that through your protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly serve you in good works, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
Bishop of Lincoln and Scholar
Anglican Commemoration
Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, was the greatest English scholar of the thirteenth century and one of the fathers of natural science. A poor boy from Suffolk who rose to rule the largest diocese in England, he studied light as the first form of creation, taught the first Oxford Franciscans, reformed his clergy parish by parish, and stood against a pope who would sell the care of souls. He died in his see in 1253. His feast is October 9.
Robert Grosseteste was born around 1168, likely in Suffolk. He studied at Oxford and possibly Paris, mastering theology, natural philosophy, mathematics, and languages including Greek and Hebrew — a rare combination for Western scholars of his era. He served as the first chancellor of Oxford University (a role still being formalized) and lectured to the early Franciscan community at Oxford, forming a lasting bond with the friars.
In 1235, Grosseteste was appointed Bishop of Lincoln, then England's largest diocese. As bishop, he conducted rigorous visitations enforcing clerical discipline, education, and morality, frequently clashing with cathedral chapters, religious houses, and the papacy itself. His central contention was that the cure of souls was the bishop's paramount duty and could not be subordinated to administrative convenience or financial interests.
His prolific writings encompassed biblical commentary, scientific treatises on light and optics (De Luce, De Lineis, Angulis et Figuris), the pastoral allegory Château d'Amour, and extensive correspondence. He translated Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and the works of Pseudo-Dionysius directly from Greek, advancing Western access to key philosophical sources. Roger Bacon credited him as an inspiration for empirical investigation.
In 1253, Grosseteste wrote a landmark letter to Pope Innocent IV refusing a papal provision to a Lincoln canonry, asserting the bishop's duty to conscience over papal administrative mandate. He died on October 9, 1253. Never formally canonized, he is commemorated in the Anglican calendar for his learning, pastoral integrity, and prophetic witness against ecclesiastical corruption.
Grosseteste's veneration rests primarily on his documented intellectual achievements and principled episcopal resistance rather than on miraculous tradition. Matthew Paris records that at his death supernatural signs were observed, and an informal local cult developed, but he was never formally canonized. His inclusion in the Anglican calendar reflects Protestant and Anglican appropriation of his resistance to papal authority as proto-reformational witness.