chapter 12 The Scientific Basis of Robert Grosseteste’s Teaching at the Franciscan School

Cecilia Panti

Robert Grosseteste (c. 1170–1253) was the first master of the school of the Friars Minor at Oxford in the years 1230–1235 and later, as (1235–1253), he was a fervent supporter of the in the early phases of their expansion in England. His special relationship with the friars was documented in Franciscan chronicles, starting with Thomas of Eccleston and continuing in the letters of his dearest friend, Brother , and in the writings of . In modern times, several studies have analysed and celebrated this multifaceted association, which had important effects on pastoral achievements, political action and the spiritual growth of both the English Franciscan community and their sponsor. Yet two different opinions have directed modern historiography with reference to Grosseteste’s teaching to the friars and his intellectual influence on the institution that became the order’s most prestigious school in England. On one hand, the English master has been considered the first promoter of the friars’ long-lasting interests in experimental science, and mathematics. On the other, it seems that Grosseteste’s teaching was essentially theological and based on the Bible as a preparation for evangelization and preaching; and this training failed to create a durable educational model.1 What follows challenges these two views by presenting Grosseteste as a scholar, who, far from being interested in promoting mundane sciences, took seriously the task of grounding his pupils in biblical instruction for the ben- efit of their preaching. Nonetheless, it is true that his writings and sermons from this period made extensive use of scientific references, mainly connected to the behaviour of and the nature of colour. My intention is to demon- strate that these references were not related to a curriculum in sciences, but

1 Bibliographical details are given at section 1. For a brief sketch on Grosseteste’s legacy to the Franciscans see James McEvoy, ‘Robertus Grossatesta Lincolniensis: an essay in historiogra- phy, medieval and modern’, in Robert Grosseteste and the Beginnings of a British Theological Tradition: Papers delivered at the Grosseteste Colloquium held at Greyfriars, Oxford on 3rd July 2002, ed. Maura O’Carroll (Rome, 2003), 21–99, esp. 25–32.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/9789004331624_013 248 panti were a sort of didactic tool to illustrate how to deal with theological issues in readily understandable language.This device, which obviously reveals only one aspect of Grosseteste’s teaching methodology, was an exemplification of how to preach to laymen and laywomen, that is, the fundamental purpose of the friars’ theological learning. Paragraph 4 explores whether this feature of Grosseteste’s didactic method was communicated to subsequent Franciscan masters and whether it was consistent with Roger Bacon’s assertions about Grosseteste’s theological use of sciences. The substantially negative response is, in my opinion, an indication of the distance between Grosseteste’s initial objective in the guidance of the school and the subsequent developments of Franciscan learning in England.2

1 The Modern Debate on Grosseteste’s Theological Teaching and Scientific Legacy for the English Franciscans

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the major research by Andrew George Little on the English Greyfriars and their early schools opened a notable season of studies on Franciscan learning in the Middle Ages. In charting the rapid development of the Oxford school to a position of importance in the broader scenery of the thirteenth-century intellectual milieu, Little underlined how influential the figure of Robert Grosseteste was in stimulating ‘a special tradition of learning’, which ‘prevailed for several generations’.3 In agreement with Little, Hilarin Felder claimed that a noteworthy aspect of this heritage was the scientific imprint that placed the natural sciences at the service of theol- ogy.4 Both scholars, in fact, attached immense importance to Roger Bacon’s often-repeated remarks that Grosseteste and his friend and successor at the Franciscan chair, Friar Adam Marsh, promoted three fields of study: the Bible, the ancient languages and the mathematical sciences.5Their shared conviction

2 What follows develops and partially synthesizes three recent papers of mine, referred to in subsequent footnotes, on the theological use of science by Grosseteste and early Franciscans at Oxford. I wish to thank Michael Robson for his precious help and suggestions for the improvement of this study. 3 gfo; Little, ‘Franciscan School at Oxford’; and Little, Franciscan Papers, 55–71, esp. 59. 4 See Hilarin Felder, Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Studien im Franziskanerorden bis um die Mittedes13.Jahrhunderts (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1904), 254–316. Italian translation: Storiadegli studi scientifici nell’ordine francescano dalla sua fondazione fino circa la metà del xiii secolo (Siena, 1911). 5 For a last enquiry on Bacon’s remarks and previous bibliography see Cecilia Panti, ‘The the- ological use of science in Robert Grosseteste and Adam Marsh according to Roger Bacon: