the Dean of Lincoln had been induced to abandon the cause of the Chapter on condition that he received a nomination to the See of Lichfield, and that Grosseteste was at the bottom of this not very creditable transaction. Grosseteste stayed at Lyons until he received the papal decision supporting him in all the points of his contention, save one, that concerning the oath of obedience to be taken by the prebends at their collation. To the chronicler, Matthew Paris, all this was exceedingly unpleasant. As a monk he was in favour of monastic privileges, and on this occasion he describes Grosseteste as one who was opposed to God and man, a very Ishmaelite, whose hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he does not hesitate to affirm that Grosseteste had procured the Pope's decision only after the outpouring of vast sums of money. That Grosseteste obtained the decision by bribery is not to be thought of, but he certainly strained every nerve to obtain it, and having obtained it, he returned to England. I am afraid that this visit to Lyons was a discreditable incident in Grosseteste's life. The election of his dean to the bishopric of Lichfield has traces of a not very upright transaction; and, moreover, it soon became obvious that Grosseteste felt that he had to pay something to the Pope for his complaisance. So he circulated among the English bishops a document asking that provision should be made for the expenses of Archbishop Boniface at his consecration, a document of which he himself had disapproved when asked by Boniface at Lyons to sign it. In the same year also there came a demand from the Pope for a
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