[37] “Grosseteste, then, may be regarded in a threefold aspect; first, as a reformer who sought to reform the Church from within and not from without, by the removal of existing abuses, by the encouragement he gave to the great religious revival of the early part of the 13th century, and by the example of unflinching fearlessness and rectitude which he set in his performance of the episcopal office; secondly, as the teacher who guided the rising fortunes of the University of Oxford; and thirdly, as the statesman who, applying to new conditions the policy associated with the name of Stephen Langton, endeavoured to combine into one effort the struggle of the clergy for the liberties of the Church with the struggle of the laity for the liberties of the nation, imbued Simon de Montfort with principles of ‘truth and justice’ which went far beyond the mere maintenance of the privileges of his own order, and at the same time, by his effort to reconcile him with his sovereign, and by the whole tenour of his actions, showed that had he lived a few years longer, his influence would have been directed to the task of achieving by peaceful means the constitutional advance brought about by those who, taking the sword, perished by the sword.”--Stevenson, _Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln_. [38] See recent article on “Grosseteste” in _Catholic Encyclopædia_. [39] Yet out of this letter and out of his great knowledge and love of the Scriptures a notion has been current that Grosseteste was a forerunner of Protestantism, and “a harbinger of the Reformation.” “If this implies that he had any tendency towards the doctrinal changes brought about in the Church at the Reformation, or that he evidenced any idea of a separation of the Church of England from that of Rome, a more utterly mistaken statement has never been made.”--Luard, Preface to _Grosseteste’s Letters_. (Rolls Series.) As for Grosseteste’s Scriptural knowledge, “The thorough familiarity with the Old Testament is, perhaps, only what we might expect; but the use which is made of the actions of all the characters of Scripture, and the forced and sometimes outrageous way in which they are introduced to illustrate his argument, show how thoroughly ‘biblical’ the age was, and how completely the Old Testament history was regarded rather as the guide of men’s conduct in Christian times, than as a mere historical record of past events.”--_Ibid._ [40] “The king acted as if he had sent him abroad simply to ruin his fortunes and wreck his reputation.”--Stubbs. [41] Matthew Paris. [42] Rishanger, the chronicler for St. Albans, puts the case for the national party:--