Grosseteste's life is an illustration of the difficulties which the circumstances of the time threw in the way of any honest attempt really to govern the Church. Grosseteste, devoted to the existing ecclesiastical system as he was, an absolutely devout son of the Pope, yet was driven in spite of himself into antagonism to that system. My object in these lectures has been to show the Papal system at its best and to point out how rapidly it deteriorated. Grosseteste was a strong man, who tried to express the English spirit of resistance to what was wrong, and we have seen how he was thwarted at every step he took towards reform, and that by the very power whose work it was to govern the Church. It is in vain to draw, as some nowadays try to draw, a line of distinction between the spiritual supremacy of the Pope and his actual jurisdiction. Jurisdiction naturally follows from supremacy. If we grant spiritual supremacy and unlimited power, is it possible to define either the contents or the limits and restrictions of that power? This was the difficulty that confronted Grosseteste. But he could only feel justified in revolting when the demands made upon his conscience became intolerable. He was really the last of the great English churchmen; those who came after him had the picture of his life before them as a warning. The spirits of the bishops who followed him were broken; they simply tried to make the best of a servitude which appeared to be inevitable.
