say and do not, they teach in words and break in their lives.'" Similarly, it is said, Psalm 119:2: "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that seek him with a whole heart."
From what has just been said it is clear that the cathedra of Moses or the apostolic seat is the authority to teach God's law, that is, the family of holy popes or of bishops succeeding the apostles, which family, as it chiefly thinks of God's honor, so it chiefly takes care for it and most proftably looks out for the holy church and most helpfully for both superior and subject—not by preferring the unworthy, not in putting aside the more fit, not in confirming without examination an ecclesiastical office to any one for gain or blood relationship or private personal tie.
And, further, it is clear, as concerning the apostolic commands, as said the lord of Lincoln[1] in the following reply to the letters of the Roman pontiff about preferring a certain relative to a stall in Lincoln church: "The apostolic commands I fully obey with filial affection, devotedly and reverently. Indeed, I oppose and resist those who oppose themselves to the apostolic commands, myself zealous for the paternal honor. To do both I consider myself held by reason of my sonship and out of regard to the divine com-
- ↑ Robert Grosseteste, the famous bishop of Lincoln, 1235–1253, was one of the chief English ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages. He was a scholar and patron of learning as well as a vigorous and independent episcopal administrator. The letters, quoted here and further on, are found in Luard's ed., Rolls Series, 1864, Pp. 435, 437- Grosseteste made bold protest against Innocent IV's appointment of his nephew, Fred. of Lavagna to a stall at Lincoln. It was one of the boldest protests made against the custom of appointing Italians to rich English livings. Matthew Paris referred to the papal exactions upon England as "bloodsucking extortion."Shakespeare expressed a wide-spread feeling, King John, 3:1:
"That no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toil in our dominions."Although Grosseteste on more than one occasion resisted the pope, he did not at one time deny the pope's right to "dispose freely of all ecclesiastical benefices," as he wrote, 1238 to the papal legate Otho, Luard's ed., p. 145. But in the letter from which Huss quotes, he said: "I disobey, I resist, I rebel." Huss knew of Grosseteste through Wyclif's quotations, but, as is also probable, at first hand, as Grosseteste's MSS. are in the Prague library.
