#Death of Robert Grosseteste

[silvestromedia]

SAINTS OF THE DAY FOR APRIL 03

St. Agape, Roman Catholic Martyr, Agape and her sisters Chionia and Irene, Christians of Thessalonica, Macedonia, were convicted of possessing texts of the Scriptures despite a decree issued in 303 by Emperor Diocletian naming such possessions a crime punishable by death. When they further refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, the governor, Dulcitius, had Agape and Chionia burned alive. When Irene still refused to recant, Dulcitius ordered her sent to a house of prostitution. There she was unmolested after being exposed naked and chained, she was put to death either by burning or by an arrow through her throat. Feastday April 3

St. Richard of Wyche, 1253 A.D. Richard of Wyche, also known as Richard of Chichester, was born at Wyche (Droitwich), Worcestershire, England. He was orphaned when he was quite young. He retrieved the fortunes of the mismanaged estate he inherited when he took it over, and then turned it over to his brother Robert. Richard refused marriage and went to Oxford, where he studied under Grosseteste and met and began a lifelong friendship with Edmund Rich. Richard pursued his studies at Paris, received his M.A. from Oxford, and then continued his studies at Bologna, where he received his doctorate in Canon Law. After seven years at Bologna, he returned to Oxford, was appointed chancellor of the university in 1235, and then became chancellor to Edmund Rich, now archbishop of Canterbury, whom he accompanied to the Cistercian monastery at Pontigny when the archbishop retired there. After Rich died at Pontigny, Richard taught at the Dominican House of Studies at Orleans and was ordained there in 1243. After a time as a parish priest at Deal, he became chancellor of Boniface of Savoy, the new archbishop of Canterbury, and when King Henry III named Ralph Neville bishop of Chichester in 1244, Boniface declared his selection invalid and named Richard to the See. Eventually, the matter was brought to Rome and in 1245; Pope Innocent IV declared in Richard's favor and consecrated him. When he returned to England, he was still opposed by Henry and was refused admittance to the bishop's palace; eventually Henry gave in when threatened with excommunication by the Pope. The remaining eight years of Richard's life were spent in ministering to his flock. He denounced nepotism, insisted on strict clerical discipline, and was ever generous to the poor and the needy. He died at a house for poor priests in Dover, England, while preaching a crusade, and was canonized in 1262.

ST. JOHN, BISHOP OF NAPLES Bishop of Naples in a particularly turbulent period, John is remembered for having had the remains of St. Januarius translated from the Ager Marcianus to the extra-urban cemetery. He died on Holy Saturday 432 at the beginning of the liturgical celebration and was buried on the feast of Easter. April 3

ST. SIXTUS I, POPE, succeeded St. Alexander and was followed by St. Telesphorus. According to the "Liberian Catalogue" of popes , he ruled the Church during the reign of Adrian "a conulatu Nigri et Aproniani usque Vero III et Ambibulo", that is, from 117 to 126. April 3

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today in Christian History

Today is Friday, October 9th, the 283rd day of 2020. There are 83 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

1523: Death of Robert Grosseteste, a reform-minded English bishop who influenced John Wycliffe and formulated the scientific method.

1561: The Colloquy of Poissy ends. Held near Paris, the conference between the French Roman Catholic bishops and the Protestant ministers is unsuccessful in reaching accord, but paves the way for the 1562 Edict of St. Germain that will officially recognize and give limited freedom to French Protestantism.

1635: Roger Williams is sentenced to banishment by Massachusetts for his religious views. In exile, he will found Rhode Island on principles of freedom of conscience.

1747: Death of David Brainerd at age twenty-nine of tuberculosis. He had been a missionary to Native Americans in New England. His journal, published by Jonathan Edwards, will inspire many readers to become missionaries.

1800: Mary Webb, wheelchair-bound, organizes fourteen Baptist and Congregational women into the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes.

1860: Conversion of Robert Anderson, who will later head Scotland Yard.

1916: Irene Webster-Smith boards the Suwa Maru for Japan, where she will rescue Geisha children.

1920: Orthodox reader Basil Ivanovich Katorgin is sentenced to death by Communists of Omsk province for “counter-revolutionary activity.” The sentence will be carried out on October 23 when he is shot.

1935: Yin Renxian and his wife Faith Suyun Ding, who have been reaching out with the gospel to prison inmates and street people, baptize more than twenty prisoners.

1940: Death of Wilfred T. Grenfell, vibrant missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador.

1994: A Roman Catholic mob destroys an evangelical church in Acapulco, Mexico.

2011: The Egyptian army ruthlessly runs over or shoots Christians who are peacefully protesting the failure of the Muslim government to bring to justice Muslims who have burned Christian churches and attacked Christians. Twenty-seven protesters die. Two days later Muslims will also assault the Christian funeral processions.

[luxe-pauvre]

As a result, Leonardo became one of the major Western thinkers, more than a century before Galileo, to pursue in a persistent hands-on fashion the dialogue between experiment and theory that would lead to the modern Scientific Revolution. Aristotle had laid the foundations, in ancient Greece, for the method of partnering inductions and deductions: using observations to formulate general principles, then using these principles to predict outcomes. While Europe was mire in its dark years of medieval superstition, the work of combining theory and experiment was advanced primarily in the Islamic world. Muslim scientists often worked as scientific instrument makers, which made them experts at measurements and applying theories. The Arab physicist Ibn al-Haytham, known as Alhazen, wrote a seminal text on optics in 1021 that combined observations and experiments to develop a theory of how human vision works, then devised further experiments to test the theory. His ideas and methods became a foundation for the work of Alberti and Leonardo four centuries later. Meanwhile, Aristotle's science was being revived in Europe during the thirteenth century by scholars such as Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon. The empirical method used by Bacon emphasised a cycle: observations should lead to a hypothesis, which should then be tested by precise experiments, which would then be used to refine the original by precise experiments, which would then be used to refine the original hypothesis. Bacon also recorded and reported his experiments in precise detail so that others could independently replicate and verify them. Leonardo had the eye and temperament and curiosity to become an exemplar of this scientific method. "Galileo, born 112 years after Leonardo, is usually credited with being the first to develop this kind of rigorous empirical approach and is often hailed as the father of modern science," the historian Fritjof Capra wrote. "There can be no doubt that this honour would have been bestowed on Leonardo da Vinci had he published his scientific writings during his lifetime, or had his Notebooks been widely studied soon after his death." That goes a step too far, I think. Leonardo did not invent the scientific method, nor did Aristotle or Alhazen or Galileo or any Bacon. But his uncanny abilities to engage in the dialogue between experience and theory made him a prime example of how acute observations, fanatic curiosity, experimental testing, a willingness to question dogma, and the ability to discern patterns across disciplines can lead to great leaps in human understanding.

Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci

[astridstorm]

“Not sparing the rod though cherishing the weak”: The Feast of Robert Grosseteste

Preached Wednesday October 9

First, let me say that we wish our Jewish friends a blessed Yom Kippur today and we’re thinking of them. 

I continue to be given, on my weeks preaching, medieval figures. Which on the one hand is a relief, since it can seem an escape from today’s world, but on the other hand, really isn’t a relief at all, since I often feel that we’re reliving medieval times (the worst of medieval times) when I read the news.

Robert Grosseteste, meaning “bighead” or “fathead” (I’ll return to that) was the bishop of Lincoln in the 13th century. I suspect he is on our calendar, the Anglican calendar of saints, not just because he was a bishop in England but also because he was revered by the later English Reformers such as John Wycliffe who lived about a century after Grosseteste. 

Grosseteste was a fierce critic of corruption in the church. Like Luther long after him, he called the pope of his day the antichrist. Such aspersions were by no means new with Martin Luther. I suspect that the Gospel lesson we just read was chosen for his commemoration because it describes a showdown between Christ and the much more powerful but corrupt leaders among the Pharisees. Like Jesus, Grosseteste could have a temper. Tempers tend to run in families, and so that, I suspect, is how the family name became what it is -- “bighead” or “fathead.”

The Collect for Grosseteste that began our service this morning captures another aspect of his ministry, the importance he placed on the pastoral, or care giving role, of a bishop: “O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant Robert Grosseteste to be a bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries.”

Grosseteste came from a humble background. No one knows for sure how or where he was educated, but he begins to appear in historical records about the time he was made a deacon in the church (every priest is made a deacon before being ordained a priest). When he became bishop, he held in tension being a fierce reformer and critic of corruption in the church *and* being someone who thought that the care of souls was paramount. Those two things, being fierce and loving, ought to go together in more of us.

Here’s a quote from Grosseteste himself that captures both these sides of his personality and ministry: 

‘The pastoral charge does not consist merely in administering the sacraments, saying the canonical hours, celebrating masses, but in the truthful teaching of the living truth, in the awe-inspiring condemnation of vice and severe punishment of it when necessary. It consists also in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, covering the naked, receiving guests, visiting the sick and those in prison … By the doing of these things is the people to be taught the holy duties of the active life.’

But I’ve failed to mention yet another part of Grosseteste. I came to know him years ago NOT through my theological studies but through philosophy. He was an intellectual powerhouse. He translated important works by the philosopher Aristotle (Grosseteste was fluent in Greek). He became the Chancellor of Oxford, where he taught. In fact, this was his legacy to many of his peers rather than his church involvement; he didn’t become a bishop until he was much older. Even in his own time he was regarded as one of the great mathematicians and physicists of his age. His most famous disciple was Roger Bacon, who is considered one of the earliest advocates of the modern scientific method, which derives from Aristotle. A university near Lincoln Cathedral (where he’s buried) was named after him.

There are (I’m sorry to say, Susie) no stories of a dramatic death or of magical relics of this man. No displays of skulls or femurs that emit powers of healing, not for this scientist and saint. He is buried in a chapel in Lincoln Cathedral, and I’ll close by reading what it says there on his tomb.  

In this place lies the body of ROBERT GROSSETESTE who was born at Stradbroke in Suffolk, studied in the University of Paris – and in 1224 became Chancellor of Oxford University where he befriended and taught the newly founded orders of Friars: In 1229 he became Archdeacon of Leicester and a Canon of this Cathedral – reigning as Bishop of Lincoln from 17th. June 1235 until his death.

He was a man of learning and an inspiration to scholars a wise administrator while a true shepherd of his flock, ever concerned to lead them to Christ in whose service he strove to temper justice with mercy, hating the sin while loving the sinner, not sparing the rod though cherishing the weak – He died on 8th. October 1253.

[silvestromedia]

Saint of the day April 03-30

St. Richard of Wyche, 1253 A.D. Richard of Wyche, also known as Richard of Chichester, was born at Wyche (Droitwich), Worcestershire, England. He was orphaned when he was quite young. He retrieved the fortunes of the mismanaged estate he inherited when he took it over, and then turned it over to his brother Robert. Richard refused marriage and went to Oxford, where he studied under Grosseteste and met and began a lifelong friendship with Edmund Rich. Richard pursued his studies at Paris, received his M.A. from Oxford, and then continued his studies at Bologna, where he received his doctorate in Canon Law. After seven years at Bologna, he returned to Oxford, was appointed chancellor of the university in 1235, and then became chancellor to Edmund Rich, now archbishop of Canterbury, whom he accompanied to the Cistercian monastery at Pontigny when the archbishop retired there. After Rich died at Pontigny, Richard taught at the Dominican House of Studies at Orleans and was ordained there in 1243. After a time as a parish priest at Deal, he became chancellor of Boniface of Savoy, the new archbishop of Canterbury, and when King Henry III named Ralph Neville bishop of Chichester in 1244, Boniface declared his selection invalid and named Richard to the See. Eventually, the matter was brought to Rome and in 1245; Pope Innocent IV declared in Richard's favor and consecrated him. When he returned to England, he was still opposed by Henry and was refused admittance to the bishop's palace; eventually Henry gave in when threatened with excommunication by the Pope. The remaining eight years of Richard's life were spent in ministering to his flock. He denounced nepotism, insisted on strict clerical discipline, and was ever generous to the poor and the needy. He died at a house for poor priests in Dover, England, while preaching a crusade, and was canonized in 1262.

St. Agape, Roman Catholic Martyr, Agape and her sisters Chionia and Irene, Christians of Thessalonica, Macedonia, were convicted of possessing texts of the Scriptures despite a decree issued in 303 by Emperor Diocletian naming such possessions a crime punishable by death. When they further refused to sacrifice to pagan gods, the governor, Dulcitius, had Agape and Chionia burned alive. When Irene still refused to recant, Dulcitius ordered her sent to a house of prostitution. There she was unmolested after being exposed naked and chained, she was put to death either by burning or by an arrow through her throat. Feastday April 3

ST. JOHN, BISHOP OF NAPLES

Bishop of Naples in a particularly turbulent period, John is remembered for having had the remains of St. Januarius translated from the Ager Marcianus to the extra-urban cemetery. He died on Holy Saturday 432 at the beginning of the liturgical celebration and was buried on the feast of Easter. April 3

ST. SIXTUS I, POPE, succeeded St. Alexander and was followed by St. Telesphorus. According to the "Liberian Catalogue" of popes , he ruled the Church during the reign of Adrian "a conulatu Nigri et Aproniani usque Vero III et Ambibulo", that is, from 117 to 126. April 3

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today In Christian History

October 9, 1253: Death of Robert Grosseteste, a reform-minded English bishop who influenced John Wycliffe and formulated the scientific method.

October 9, 1635: Roger Williams is sentenced to banishment by Massachusetts for his religious views. In exile, he will found Rhode Island on principles of freedom of conscience.

October 9, 1747: Death of David Brainerd at age twenty-nine of tuberculosis. He had been a missionary to Native Americans in New England. His journal, published by Jonathan Edwards, will inspire many readers to become missionaries.

October 9, 1940: Death of Wilfred T. Grenfell, vibrant missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador.