In the reign of Henry III, son of John, while the king was conniving at the usurpations of Rome, and the pope ridiculing the complaints of the barons, a pious and energetic man, of comprehensive understanding, was occupied in the study of the Holy Scriptures in their original languages, and bowing to their sovereign authority. Robert Grostête (Greathead or _Capito_) was born of poor parents in the county of Lincolnshire, and being raised to the see of Lincoln in 1235, when he was sixty years of age, he boldly undertook to reform his diocese, one of the largest in England. Nor was this all. At the very time when the Roman pontiff, who had hitherto been content to be called the vicar of St. Peter, proclaimed himself the vicar of God,[142] and was ordering the English bishops to find benefices for _three hundred Romans_,[143] Grostête was declaring that "to follow a pope who rebels against the will of Christ, is to separate from Christ and his body; and if ever the time should come when all men follow an erring pontiff, then will be the great apostasy. Then will true Christians refuse to obey, and Rome will be the cause of an unprecedented schism."[144] Thus did he predict the Reformation. Disgusted at the avarice of the monks and priests, he visited Rome to demand a reform. "Brother," said Innocent IV to him with some irritation, "_Is thine eye evil, because I am good?_" The English bishop exclaimed with a sigh: "O money, money! how great is thy power--especially in this court of Rome!" [142] Non puri hominis sed veri Dei vicem gerit in terris. (Innocent III. Epp. lib. vi. i. 335.) He wields on earth the power, not of a holy man but of the true God. [143] Ut trecentis Romanis in primis beneficiis vacantibus providerent. Matth. Paris, ann. 1240. [144] Absit et quod.....hæc sedes et in ea præsidentes causa sint schismatis apparentis. Ortinnus Gratius, ed. Brown, fol. 251. [Sidenote: CONTEST WITH THE POPE.] A year had scarcely elapsed before Innocent commanded the bishop to give a canonry in Lincoln cathedral to his infant nephew. Grostête replied: "After the sin of Lucifer there is none more opposed to the Gospel than that which ruins souls by giving them a faithless minister. Bad pastors are the cause of unbelief, heresy, and disorder. Those who introduce them into the church are little better than antichrists, and their culpability is in proportion to their dignity. Although the chief of the angels should order me to commit such a sin, I would refuse. My obedience forbids me to obey; and therefore I rebel."[145] [145] Obedienter non obedio sed contradico et rebello. Matth. Paris, ad. ann. 1252.