in the Holy Scriptures the manners of the best men. He seems as a lad to have been distinguished by his thirst for knowledge. He was first a student at Oxford, and afterwards, as was customary in those days, he went to study in Paris. He then returned to Oxford, and some years later was appointed rector of the schools, an office equivalent to that of vice-chancellor at present. From that time he was marked out for ecclesiastical preferment, and soon held in turn various archdeaconries. But it was the coming of the Franciscans to Oxford that gave the great impulse to Grosseteste's life. The rise of the Franciscan friars was one of the greatest reforming movements in the Church. It was the first definite movement that had been made for centuries to carry the truths of the Gospel directly home in a practical shape to the hearts and minds of simple folk. The Franciscans began by living and teaching among simple people; but they soon found that they could not teach even simple folk unless they studied themselves. Hence their settlements in such universities as Oxford, where Grosseteste was their first lecturer. Between Grosseteste and the leader of the friars there was the closest friendship, and his connexion with the Order had a marked effect on his later years.
The next thing we hear of Grosseteste is that he was making arrangements for a pilgrimage to Rome in 1232, but he had to put it off for fear of the ill-feeling which existed in Rome against the English, in consequence of their ill-treatment of Roman priests resident in England. The fact was that the encroachments and extortions of the Papacy had reached such
