Monastic Ideals And Episcopal Visitations: The Sermo Ad Religiosos Of Robert Grosseteste

The Northumberland Bestiary and the Art of Preaching

“…14 Finally, 5) all except one (Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS R.14.9) include a sermon beginning quotienscumque peccator. In his magisterial study of Latin-English bestiaries, James characterized the quotienscumque pecca- 11 Baxter, Bestiaries, p. 103, takes issue with the term "transitional", because he fears it implies a linear development and because it assumes that the Northumberland group preceded the second family of bestiaries, which may not have been the case (p. 105). For a helpful perspective on the distinctions upon which Baxter relies to trace the manuscripts, see L. Houwen's review of Bestiaries and Their Users in the Middle Ages in Scriptorium 2 (1999), pp.…”

“…104 When he visited priests in the parishes of his diocese Grossteste personally preached to the clergy while one of the friars who accompanied him addressed the people. 105 A reading of Grosseteste's sermon Cur Deus Homo 106 has implications for NB. In this sermon, he first attempts to define the relation of creatures to the creator in a history of salvation that begins, as does NB, with man's violation of divine trust, a violation that has disrupted the proper order of the entire gamut of creatures.…”