26 March 2024

Daily prayer in Lent with
early English saints:
42, 26 March 2024,
Saint Robert of Lincoln

A 14th century portrait of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (British Library Harley MS 3860, f. 48)

Patrick Comerford

This the last week of Lent, and today is Tuesday in Holy Week (26 March 2024), known in many places as Holy Tuesday, and also as Temple Tuesday.

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

We are in Norwich today, and stayed overnight in the Saint Giles House Hotel, close to the cathedral and the city centre. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Robert Grosseteste has been described as ‘the greatest product of Oxford University’ and the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in mediaeval Oxford’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 42, Saint Robert of Lincoln

Saint Robert Grosseteste (1253), Bishop of Lincoln, Philosopher and Scientist, is remembered in Common Worship on 9 October.

Robert Grosseteste has been described as ‘a mediaeval Dr Johnson in his powers of mind and personality.’ A leading Biblical scholar and commentator, he also wrote extensively on philosophy and science, and translated Aristotle. His biographer, Sir Richard Southern, said he was the greatest product of Oxford University but a man who ‘difficult to please and difficult to follow.’ AC Crombie, the Australian historian of science, describes him as ‘the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in mediaeval Oxford.’

Robert Grosseteste (meaning ‘large-head’) was born at Stradbroke in Suffolk ca 1175. He studied at Oxford and Paris and held various posts until, after a grave illness, he returned to Oxford, where he taught at the Franciscan house of studies. He became the Chancellor of Oxford University in 1224, and at the same time he was Archdeacon of Leicester and a canon of Lincoln Cathedral.

He became Bishop of Lincoln in 1235, then the largest diocese in England, which received from him a thorough visitation soon after his arrival. He met opposition in his attempts at vigorous reforms in the shape of the dean and chapter in the cathedral in Lincoln, who saw themselves as beyond his jurisdiction. The dispute was settled in 1245 when the Pope issued a bull giving the bishop full power over the chapter. Robert attended the Council of Lyons that year.

At the papal court in Lyons in 1250, he denounced the Pope and the cardinals for ‘acting contrary to Christ’. The papal see, he told them, ‘the throne of God, the sun of the whole world … has been perverted and it has become a source of perdition and destruction.’

His wide-ranging interests covered mathematics, optics and many of the sciences; he translated large numbers of theological works from Greek and wrote his own theological commentaries and philosophical works.

It has been argued that Grosseteste played a key role in the development of the scientific method. His ideas about how the universe was created are close to the Big Bang Theory, he was the first scientist to identify the cause of the rainbow as refraction and he seems to have understood centuries before anyone else that the universe is expanding.

He introduced to the Latin West the notion of controlled experiment and related it to demonstrative science, as one among many ways of arriving at scientific knowledge. He was the first of the Scholastics to fully understand Aristotle’s vision of the dual path of scientific reasoning: generalising from particular observations into a universal law, and then back again from universal laws to prediction of particulars.

Grosseteste worked from Latin translations of Arabic versions of Aristotle’s texts. These had been translated from the original Greek by Islamic scholars. Jewish scholars based in southern Europe curated and distributed the texts to western scholars.

His commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics was one of the first and most influential of the mediaeval commentaries on this fundamental work. Other important writings belonging to the first period are his commentary on Aristotle’s Physics; independent treatises on astronomy and cosmology, the calendar (with proposals for the reform of the inaccurate calendar then in use), sound, comets, heat, optics, and other scientific subjects; and his scriptural commentaries, especially the Moralitates in evangelica, De cessatione legalium, Hexaëmeron and commentaries on the Pauline Epistles and the Psalms.

He began to study Greek in 1230-1231, and used this learning by translating into Latin translations of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and De caelo, of the De fide orthodoxe of Saint John of Damascus, of Pseudo-Dionysius and of other theological writings. He brought assistants who knew Greek to Lincoln to work with him, and also arranged for a translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew.

His writings on the first chapter of Genesis anticipate of modern cosmological ideas. He read that the first thing created was light, and said that the universe began with pure energy exploding from a point source.

In a paper in the journal Nature Physics ten years ago [July 2014], a group of scientists discussed how they are re-examining Grosseteste’s work. They showed his contributions to the field of optics have yet to be assimilated into the canon of science. For example, his insight into the physics of rainbows enabled the researchers in the Ordered Universe Project at Durham and Oxford Universities to create a new co-ordinate system for colour.

Robert Grosseteste died at Buckden in Huntingdonshire on 9 October 1253. He is buried in a tomb in his memorial chapel in Lincoln Cathedral. The plaque on his tomb says: ‘He was a man of learning and an inspiration to scholars a wise administrator while a true shepherd of his flock, ever concerned to lead them to Christ in whose service he strove to temper justice with mercy, hating the sin while loving the sinner, not sparing the rod though cherishing the weak.’

Dr Jack Cunningham, a theology lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, recently launched a campaign for a statue to be erected in Lincoln to Bishop Robert Grosseteste. ‘Grosseteste was revolutionary in the history of science because he knew that everything was about mathematics and that good scientists should base their knowledge on what they observe and not what they think,’ he says.

Robert Grosseteste wrote important commentaries on Aristotle’s texts … the statue of Aristotle in Aristotelous Square in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 12: 20-36 (NRSVA):

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.

27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say – “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ 35 Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

Robert Grosseteste’s insight into the physics of rainbows enabled researchers at Durham and Oxford to create a new co-ordinate system for colour … a double rainbow over the Burrow Beach at Portrane, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 26 March 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Holy Week Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Canon Dr Peniel Rajkumar, Theologian and Director of Global Mission, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (26 March 2024) invites us to pray in these words:

O Lord, we pray for all those actively pursuing the vision of a different world marked by justice, peace and joy for all.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who in your tender love towards the human race
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
grant that we may follow the example of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant,
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation:
give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Additional Collect:

True and humble king,
hailed by the crowd as Messiah:
grant us the faith to know you and love you,
that we may be found beside you
on the way of the cross,
which is the path of glory.

Yesterday: Saint Richard of Chichester

Tomorrow: William of Ockham

Robert Grosseteste became Chancellor of Oxford University in 1224 and Bishop of Lincoln in 1235 … the arms of Lincoln College Oxford incorporate the arms of the Bishop of Lincoln (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A spring afternoon on
the green in Woughton,
listening to legends about
Dick Turpin and his horse

Woughton-on-the-Green and Saint Mary’s Church beside the Village Green … the village has many legends about Dick Turpin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

After our visit to Milton Keynes University Hospital last week to mark the second anniversary of my stroke (18 March), Charlotte and I went to the nearby village of Woughton-on-the-Green, to the east of the hospital, to walk around the mediaeval village, to see Saint Mary’s Church beside the Village Green and neighbouring Woughton House, and to enjoy a late lunch in Ye Olde Swan, where we heard some of the local lore about Dick Turpin.

Woughton on the Green was listed in the Domesday Book in 1086. It is a traditional Buckinghamshire village that is now part of Milton Keynes. The civil parish of Old Woughton in south central Milton Keynes was established in 2012 by the division into two parts of Woughton parish. The original, undivided, civil parish was itself originally called ‘Woughton on the Green.’

By the time Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne, Woughton on the Green was a large village, thanks largely to the nearby Grand Union Canal and later to the nearby Wolverton Works that served the West Coast Main Line. Its population peaked at 350 in 1850, but has declining to 150 by 1960.

A new civil parish was formed in 2012 following a campaign by residents of Woughton. The new parish was given the temporary name of ‘Ouzel Valley’ until the new council adopted the name of Old Woughton Parish. Today, it has a population of 28,000, and is a suburb of Milton Keynes, although it maintains its autonomy.

The name Woughton is Anglo-Saxon in origin, meaning ‘Weoca’s farm.’ The suffix ‘on-the-Green refers to the large grassy area in the centre of the village, the traditional village green. About 60% of the parish is green space.

Until the end of the 18th century, the River Ouzel was crossed by a bridge, known as Monxton’s Bridge, connecting Walton and Woughton parishes. This name is supposed to commemorate William de Mokelestone, at one time lord of a manor in Woughton. The 18th century Buckinghamshire antiquarian by Browne Willis wrongly identified him with the priest’s effigy in Saint Mary’s Church.

Ye Olde Swan Inn looks out onto the village green and Saint Mary’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There were two manors in Woughton at Domesday. The more important manor belonged to Martin who had succeeded Azor son of Toti, a thegn of King Edward. The manor later belonged to the Earls of Arundel, until Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, was executed in 1397 as a political traitor.

The descent of the manor is difficult to trace. Part of it passed through the de Botetourt, Harcourt, Burnell, Green, Fox and Vavasour families, until it was sold in 1553 to Edmund Mordaunt, ancestor of the Earls of Peterborough. Woughton Manor was later acquired by the Nicholls and Troutbeck families and then by the Dreyer, Rose, Farrell, and Carrington Bowles families.

Part of Woughton Manor passed from the de Cheriton family to John Longville, whose family, whose seat was at Wolverton. They retained their estate in Woughton for up to 400 years before selling it to the Troutbeck family.

Domesday also records a second estate known as Woughton Manor. It later belonged to the Earls of Cornwall as part of their estates at Berkhamsted. Woughton continued to be attached to Berkhamsted as late as 1649. Part of this manor was owned by John Grey, Lord de Grey, and his descendants, the Greys, afterwards Earls of Kent, who owned the Manor of Bletchley.

In addition, the Abbots of Woburn owned property in Woughton until the Dissolution of the monastic houses at the Tudor reformation in the 16th century.

Woughton House … the manor is named in the Domesday Book, and Woughton House is expected to reopen as an hotel in April (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Woughton House, which has been an hotel for many year, stands on over 40 acres of parkland beside Saint Mary’s Church. The house was built in 1813 and remodelled in 1845 by Colonel William Levi and his wife Fanny from an earlier manor house. A talented musician, Colonel Levi ran Bletchley Musical Society for 21 years and he installed an organ in Saint Mary’s Church in 1892. For all intents and purposes, Colonel Levi and the rector of Saint Mary’s governed the village.

Woughton House was bought in 1925 by Captain and Mrs Barton, who made many improvements and added a tennis court and a cricket pitch. Woughton House was bought by General Oswald Blount and his brother Harold in 1937. General Blount was a local councillor and chairman of Woughton-on-the-gGeen Parish Council. When World War II broke out, he commanded the Home Guard unit in the village, transforming the house into Woughton’s military organisation centre.

Woughton House is expected to reopen in April as a boutique hotel.

Ye Olde Swan Inn, a 17th century inn, is said to be one of the haunts of Dick Turpin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

We enjoyed a late lunch in Ye Olde Swan Inn, a 17th century inn with later additions, and once said to have tunnels that led to Saint Mary’s Church.

This is a period building with low ceilings and exposed beams, extended over the centuries and with seating on different levels. The pub restaurant dates from Tudor times and has retained many original features.

Most of the pub is given to dining, but there is a small but comfortable bar area to one side. The large garden overlooks the Green and is very popular in the summer.

Ye Olde Swan is a period building with low ceilings and exposed beams (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

According to local lore, Woughton-on-the-Green was one of the haunts of the 18th century highwayman Dick Turpin when he changed the scene of his activities from the great North Road to Watling Street.

Turpin was said to travel to and from his exploits by an unfrequented route running over ancient tracks. The route led down the track known as Bury Lane in Woughton past the Olde Swan and down what was known as the Roman Road, across the patch of scrub covered waste known as No Man’s Land, and so on to Watling Street.

The Old Swan was a convenient stopping place for Turpin, and the landlord may have supplied him with information on travellers’ movements. A gloomy and unlit room in the centre of the inn was once known as the prison room, and prisoners travelling in custody were held there for the night. Tradition also says many wanted men were hidden there by the landlord.

Turpin’s Rock, where Dick Turpin is said to have mounted his horse to ride off from the Olde Swan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Legend says Dick Turpin reversed his horseshoes at Ye Olde Swan to escape pursuit, and that he used a large stone outside, known as Turpin’s Rock, to mount his horse quickly when he was riding off from the tavern.

Dick Turpin was captured in York and charged with horse theft in 1737, then punishable by death. He was tried in York and was hanged on 7 April 1739 by a fellow highwayman who was pardoned for his crimes for being the executioner.

Local lore in Woughton claims Dick Turpin’s ghost can still be seen on occasional dark nights riding his legendary horse Black Bess along Bury Lane. Folklore also suggests that if Turpin’s Rock is moved bad things will happen to the person who tries to move it.

Woughton-on-the-Green is a suburb of Milton Keynes but maintains its autonomy and separate identity (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)