Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

226 ROBERT GROSSETETE,
The fourth mendicant order was that of the Hermits
or Friars of St. Augustine. They possessed
forty-six convents.1
The Servites, the fifth mendicant order, did not
come to England in Catholic times.
The Trinitarians were in reality regular canons,
and the Crutched (Crossed) Friars were a military
order.
Both Dominicans and Franciscans had a zealous
supporter in Robert Grossetete, who was Bishop of
Lincoln from 1235 to 1253. A Suffolk man of low
birth, he was one of those strong natures for whom
there is no hiding under the bushel. He had a lifelong
friendship for these friars, especially for the
Franciscans. Some of their number were always with
him. He took them on his visitations, and set them
to hear confessions. " As the Pope has the fulness of
powers for the Universal Church, so has the bishop
for his particular diocese, in virtue of power received
from the apostolical authority," wrote Grossetete to a
correspondent. And again : " Saving that which is
reserved to the Pope alone, a bishop can do all
things%in his diocese".2
His manner of doing all things wras highly characteristic.
He was not born in the purple, nevertheless
he was made to command. Contemporaries of
his, who were saints, saw the same abuses, yet bore
them. Grossetete's zeal overpowered gentleness and
tact, and was apt to deal summarily with sinners and
1 Gasquet, i. Appendix. - Roberti Grossetete Epistolce, p. 365.