THE DIFFINICIO EUCARISTIE OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE

Abstract

T 1HE philosophical and scientific works of Robert Grosseteste, first chancellor of Oxford University and Bishop of Lincoln from 1235 until his death in 1253, have in recent decades received consider able attention.1 His theological works, however, have been somewhat neglected. Edward Brown published some of the sermons and Dicta in 1690,2 a few of the sermons have been individually published,3 and there has been a recent publication of sixteen Dicta in translation.4 These, together with a few other individual pieces, represent the sum total of the printed theological works of Grosseteste. Of all his theological writings, his treatise on the Eucharist is particularly interesting since it provides an insight into the state of Eucharistie theology well after the Berengarian controversy but before the full impact of Aristotelianism was felt. As far as is known, Robert Grosseteste's treatise on the Eucharist is to be found in only one place in the manuscript collections. Professor Harrison Thomson, who made an extensive survey of all the manuscripts known to contain works of Grosseteste,5 found that this treatise exists only in MS. B. 15. 20 of Trinity College, Cambridge, although, as he stated, it may still turn up elsewhere in an as yet unrecorded manuscript. MS. B. 15. 20 is made up of two distinct collections of his works. They are written on vellum measuring 11|x8J inches. At least two scribes were involved in the work and the script would point to a date somewhere in the second half of the fourteenth century. The numbering of the manuscript is by columns, two to a page, until column 742 after