From the Waters of Worldly Mutability

This is my last presentation in Saving the Sinners. It was put together during the most calamitous cold I've had in quite a while and therefore it is to a great extent just me harping on about issues debated in previous presentations. The topic for Friday was the machinery of care and how the clergy went about performing and exacting the pastoral reform whose foundation was laid at Lateran IV. I, however, missed this part and therefore concentrated on the theological approach of bishop Robert Grosseteste instead, which made the task all the more difficult since 13th century theology is not the best bedside reading when your head feels like it is filled with cotton. Consequently this presentation is shorter and less sophisticated than my previous ones, but hopefully it will prove interesting to some extent.

 Robert Grosseteste in a rendition from 1896, St. Paul's Parish Church, Morton. Note the difference between this and the manuscript illustration in the blogpost Thy Soul is in Thy Hand. The picture is taken from wikimedia commons.

Each science, each kind of wisdom has a matter and a subject on which its attention is turned. Hence this most sacred wisdom, whose name is theology, has a subject on which it is is turned. That subject is thought by some to be the whole Christ: that is to say, the incarnate Word, together with his body, the Church. Or perhaps it would not be unfitting to say that the subject of this wisdom is that One of which the Saviour himself speaks in the gospel of John

- Hexamëron, Robert Grosseteste

Theology alone, however, is the science that is similar to a net according to both perfections. It both looks like a triangular net in terms of its argumentation and it is used to capture things, namely people, from the waters of worldly mutability.

- Robert Grosseteste and the Theologian's Task, James R. Ginther (printed in Robert Grosseteste and the Beginnings of a British Theological Tradition, Maura McCarroll (ed)

Robert Grosseteste (c.1170-1253) is a remarkable and remarkably complex figure whose eclectic nature is typical of his times. As a polymath with a wide range of interests he produced scientific treatises on subjects such as light and optics while formulating his own particular approach to theology. As a lecturer he taught theology at Oxford and later attached himself to a Franciscan community, a transition that in measures of wealth can be called a demotion. As a cleric he rebuked the Papacy for its worldliness and wrote vehemently against Jews in a letter to the countess of Winchester, Margaret de Quincy, a letter being described as a particularly ugly case of Medieval anti-semitism.

Because of his multi-faceted character there are many things to be said about Robert, and many things have been said and continue to be said. In this presentation I will try to give a brief survey of Grosseteste's approach to theology in view of some of his influences.

The collection of essays edited by Maura O'Carroll implies by its very title, Robert Grosseteste and the Beginnings of a British Theological Tradition, that the uniqueness to Grosseteste's work is born from a certain insularity. Robert Grosseteste did not study at a university as a youth, but at the Lincoln cathedral school and later at Cambridge which was not yet a university in the latter quarter of the 12th century. Little is known about his early years and therefore his actual education in Lincoln is a matter of speculation. There is, as it seems, a mismatch between his parochial origins and his immensely wide mastery of arts. However, this may very well indicate that despite parochial origins he did not receive a parochial education. Since we can't move beyond the realm of speculation in this matter due to lack of evidence, one should be cautious to become too excited by the possibilities offered by such an eclipse of information. Yet I would like to point out that Lincoln was the birthplace of William de Montibus, a theologian who in the 1180s was called back to Lincoln from his school in Paris. Clearly, through this figure, who ought to have been familiar to young Robert, Lincoln received impulses from a wider world.

In 1225, most likely due to his appointment as rector at a small village, he began lecturing at Oxford, starting on exegesis of the psalms and gradually widening his theological scope. This points at two important factors. First of all he must have had a substantial enough education to be allowed lecturing at Oxford, by this time a university, and it is again very tempting to suggest that hypothetic ties with William de Montibus would have been a benefit in that regard. Secondly, as James Ginther points out in his essay on Grosseteste's theology, it shows that whatever his education from Lincoln Robert sought to expand his knowledge and his reading and although he was an Oxford lecturer in the 1220s he was not a full-fledged scholar at the time of his arrival there.

During his time in Oxford he was elected archdeacon of Leicester, a position from which he resigned in 1231 to become rector in a Franciscan community outside the city walls. This decision may have been spurred by a sermon against academic pride held by a Dominican friar in 1229, a sermon Grosseteste included in one of his private manuscripts.

Grosseteste remained a lecturer at the community until 1235 and in later ages he has been accused of being instrumental in diverting the Franciscans from poverty in favour of learning and scholarly pursuits, exemplified by Roger Bacon. However, this points to a perhaps unjustly construed dichotomy between learning and the Franciscan vows of poverty. Servus Gieben, himself a Franciscan, points to St. Francis' respect for learning and his encouragement of Anthony of Padua's lecturing even after the latter took up the Franciscan habit.

Additionally, Cuthbert Hess points out that Grosseteste's emphasis on the precedence of Scripture and his use of scientific thought as a tool of understanding the Scripture in its literal sense, is very much aligned with the Franciscan views. It was also in this period Grosseteste wrote his highly eclectic On the Six Days of Creation, and it should be suggested that this work may have been influenced just as much by Franciscan theology as by his reading of Aristotle, Augustine or Saint Basil visible in his works Dicta and On the Six Days of Creation respectively.

Although Grosseteste in his writings relies heavily on his influences this does not mean his theology lacks a personal stamp. On the contrary, as James Ginther points out, Grosseteste had his very own idiosyncracies and is original in his own right. This mixture of personal conjecture and outside influences is clear in his treatment of the relationship between mundane sciences and theology as explained in his Dictum 118. To exemplify this let us look at how this divide is put forth by Grosseteste himself:

Similarity between things can occur either through the form, function or both. To illustrate the hierarchy of sciences Grosseteste compares them to a triangular net, the reason for which stems from the philosophical notion that triangles were "the principal shape of all things." The mundane sciences, Grosseteste puts forth, is similar to the triangular net in its form, a simile probably pointing to the careful design of argumentation inherent in mundane sciences. Theology, on the other hand, is similar to the triangular net both in form and function, as the arrangement of argumentation is the same as in the mundane sciences, while the function of theology, as with a triangular net, is to save the souls "from the waters of worldly mutability." Additionally the hierarchy is justified through what the respective sciences draw man unto. Mundane sciences directs the student to what is below him or what is equal to him, while theology directs the studen towards what is above him, i.e. God.

Thy Soul is in thy Hands

 This is my presentation for yesterday's Saving the Sinners seminar and the subject is penitential manuals of the 13th century seen in view of their forebears at the University of Paris. Since this is a text intended for a particular audience it may not be that accessible to the general reader and there is a multitude of names apt to cause more confusion than clarity. However, the main argument should be sufficiently clear, or else I have strongly overestimated myself.

But these civil penalties are either mitigated or rendered more severe for various causes and are rather to be called penalties than penances. Ecclesiastical satisfactions are properly called penances since they usually proceed from inward penitence.

- Liber Poenitentialis, Alan de Lille (ca. 1114-1203)

All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year, and let them take care to do what they can to perform the penance imposed on them.

- Lateran IV, constitution 21

Behold, thy soul is in thy hands. Choose therefore for thyself whether to be sufficiently punished in this life according to canonical or authentic penances or to await purgatory.

- Liber Poenitentialis, Robert of Flamborough

The Summula - or little treatise - of Walter de Cantilupe (c. 1195-1266) was aimed for teaching clerics how to hear confessions and how to prescribe penance, and it was meant to accompany and complete the synodal statutes issued at the synod of Worcester in 1240. Walter recognised a necessity in educating the clergy in this matter and assailed the task diligently. The necessity itself stemmed from the Fourth Lateran Council whose 21st constitution states that men and women having reached the age of discernment should confess their sins to their priests at least once a year. In order for the clerics to perform the correct prescription of penance, they had to be educated in the matters of sin and how sins could be amended. It was also necessary that the clergy was in unison on these matters and therefore Walter de Cantilupe wrote a manual to edify his underlings for the benefit of his flock.

In their article "The Summulae of Bishops Walter de Cantilupe (1240) and Peter Quinel (1287)" in Speculum volume 67, Joseph Goering and Daniel S. Taylor places the Summulae of Walter de Cantilupe in relation to his forebears saying that his work "is indebted to the tradition of English works on penance and pastoral care," listing a range of clerics and theologians whose writings have preceded and more or less directly influenced Walter de Cantilupe's own writings. Goering and Taylor claim Walter's immediate inspiration in particular to be the works of Alexander of Stavensby and Robert Grosseteste, the latter being the author of the treatise Templum Dei. They also list a number of other writers of penitential matters, all of whom are Englishmen, and include the handbooks produced by the early Dominican order, which was approved by the Papal See December 22 1216.

Robert of Grosseteste, 13th century

However, I find it insufficient to limit the chain of influence to an English sphere, which is what it appears to be despite the mention of the Dominican manuals. This was an age where churchmen like Walter de Cantilupe, his contemporary episcopal colleagues and his clerical and scholarly forebears belonged to or identified themselves with the Papacy rather than the temporal realms of their age. It is of course true that the writers in question operated to a great extent within the realm of the English king, but these were men of erudition who had spent their youth outside whatever parish they resided in at a later age, and I seek therefore to attempt extending the range of influence beyond the English sphere by looking at the backgrounds of the various writers of penitential literature.

The tradition of English penitential guides is said to have started with Robert of Flamborough's Liber Poenitentialis (1208-13). Contemporary works are Summa de penitentia by Thomas of Chobham (d. 1230's) and Summa qui bene presunt (c. 1220) by Richard of Wetheringsett (active c. 1200 - c. 1230). These men were all English by birth, but it is insufficient to label them as Englishmen, since they were a part of the vast Papal network operating on a level of its own regardless of temporal boundaries. Their relationship to this network becomes evident once we start looking a bit closer at these writers and their backgrounds.

Robert of Flamborough's book of penances was written on the instigation of Richard Poore, bishop of Salisbury and in his youth student in Paris under Stephen Langton. Robert himself was also canon-penitentiary at the abbey of Saint Victor in Paris.

Thomas of Chobham studied arts and theology in the 1180s and was influenced by Peter the Chanter, whose theology echoes in his mature writings. After a period at Salisbury under Richard Poore's older brother Herbert, in which he wrote the Summa de penitentia et officiis ecclesiae, Thomas returned to Paris and apparently taught theology in the 1220s.

Richard of Wetheringsett was not a Parisian student, but studied at the cathedral school in Lincoln. However, his master, William de Montibus had sometimes in the 12th century - maybe the 1160s - studied theology under Peter Comestor and others. He also taught theology himself in a school outside the Paris walls, and it would be surprising if this did in no way reflect on the young Richard. Also Walter's contemporary Robert de Grosseteste had studied in Lincoln.

As we can see Paris is the perhaps main unifying feature of these churchmen. Pope Innocent III himself, in his days as Lotario di Conte Segni, had also studied at Paris, and among the master's there penance had been one of the many issues frequently debated. Among the grandest names in this respect are Alan de Lille who wrote his book on penances in the period c.1175-1200. Alan de Lille was in turn a student of Peter Abelard who himself discussed the nature of sin in a heated argument with Bernard of Clairvaux.

Penance had of course been an aspect of Christian life long before the 12th century, but with Lateran IV's mandatory annual confession there comes a paradigm shift for penance which demands much more from both the laity and the clergy in terms of knowledge and awareness and opens up for the range of penitential literature. At the core of this change lies the intellectual milieu of the University of Paris, its masters and its student, and it is above all in that tradition we must consider Walter di Cantilupe's summulae.