As the new nave was approaching completion, the bishopric of Lincoln was conferred on a man who was destined to play a part second only to that of St. Hugh in the history of the diocese. It has been said that probably no one had greater influence on English thought and literature for the next two centuries than Robert Grosseteste, the friend of Roger Bacon. It is to Grosseteste that Tyssyngton refers when he speaks of "_Lincolniensis, cujus comparatio ad omnes doctores modernos est velut comparatio solis ad lunam quando eclipsatur._" Of humble birth, Grosseteste rose to be one of the greatest scholars of his day, and the boldest defender of the rights and liberties of the Church of England. In the first year of his episcopacy (1235) he visited the monastic establishments of his diocese, and found it necessary to remove no fewer than seven abbots and four priors. Such a proceeding was, of course, much resented, but when the bishop meditated a still bolder stroke, and contemplated a Visitation of the cathedral, the opposition was brought to a climax. He says: "In my first circuit some came to me finding fault and saying, 'My Lord, you are doing a thing new and unaccustomed.' To whom I answered 'Every novelty which does good to a man is a blessed novelty.'" Grosseteste wrote a pamphlet in defence of his claim, in answer to which the cathedral body produced a charter, altogether a forgery, purporting to give authority to the dean to govern all things, requiring an appeal to the bishop only if his own discipline failed. The matter was referred to the Pope, and finally decided by a Bull of Innocent IV., in 1245, in the bishop's favour. Amongst his reforms was the suppression of the "execrable custom" known as the "Feast of Fools," when the "House of God" was turned into a "house of joking, scurrility, and trifling." It was enjoined that the minster authorities should "by no means permit to be holden this Feast of Fools, since it is full of vanity and defiled with pleasures, in the church of Lincoln on the venerable feast of the Circumcision of our Lord." But there were troubles to come from higher quarters still; Grosseteste had put his hand to the plough, and was determined not to look back. Six years after his triumph over the chapter, he was temporarily suspended by the Pope for refusing to induct an Italian, ignorant of the English tongue, into a rich benefice in his diocese. In the year 1253, the Pope again required him to appoint an Italian (this time his nephew, Frederick di Lavagna) to a canonry, and he again refused. In spite of a sentence of excommunication for this offence, Grosseteste fearlessly continued his episcopal duties. [Illustration: Early English Pier.]