Aristotle’s ape. OPPONENTS OF ARISTOTELIANISM On the other hand, there were many individuals who, though accepting the teachings of Aristotle and his Arabic commentators in regard to specific facts and theories, were none the less sternly opposed to blind and uncritical adoption of them. _William of Auvergne_ William of Auvergne, bishop of Paris from 1228 to his death in 1249, was leader of the ecclesiastical party that stood out against the study of Aristotelian philosophy and theology in that city. It was nevertheless true, as Duhem tells us, that William’s erudition “had received in abundance additions from sources which had not enriched the erudition of earlier centuries: that is from the works of Aristotle and Arabic authors.”[439] The _De universo_ of William contains much material on cosmology and natural history. _Robert Grosseteste_ The great English churchman, Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln from 1235 until his death in 1253, presents an even more striking example of the scholar, well read in Aristotelian and Arabic learning, who was prone to question many of the Peripatetic doctrines. Grosseteste deserves a high place in the history of medieval science by reason of the depth of his scholarship and the originality of his ideas. His style, however, is often difficult and obscure. From the geographical point of view several of his treatises are of unusual interest. The _De sphaera_ is devoted to problems of astronomical geography. In the _De impressionibus aëris seu de prognosticatione_ rules are laid down for the preparation of weather forecasts based upon astrological considerations. The _De luce seu de inchoatione formarum_ explains Robert’s theory of the Creation. The _De natura locorum_, in which the influences of celestial rays upon the earth’s surface are discussed, gives expression to many views that were elaborated in fuller detail by Robert’s more famous pupil and intellectual successor, Roger Bacon.[440] _ENCYCLOPEDIC WORKS_