ROBERT GROSSETESTA (GREATHEAD). — English theologian and philosopher, born at Stradbrook (county of Suffolk) c. 1175, died at Lincoln in 1253. He studied at Lincoln and at Oxford, where in 1222 he was elected chancellor of the University. Master of theology in the studium of the Friars Minor at Oxford (1224–35), archdeacon of Leicester (1220–32), in 1235 he was appointed bishop of Lincoln (hence the medieval designation Lincolnensis). In governing the diocese, which at that time was the largest in England, he waged fierce struggles to implement a broad plan of reforms; he also resisted Innocent IV when the Pope demanded that he confer benefices on clerics from other countries.
The opposition was rather the fruit of untimely zeal than an indication of rebellion, since G. was a fervent upholder of Roman primacy; Anglican historians therefore wrongly regard him as a precursor of Protestantism.
Although G. did not, as seems probable, study in Paris, his relations with Alexander of Hales and with John of Rochelle (de Rupella) link him to the intellectual movement of that center, whose programs clearly inspired him. His numerous philosophical opuscula (about 27, critically edited by L. Baur, Die philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Bischofs von Lincoln [Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie und Theologie des Mittelalters, 9], Münster 1912) touch on problems of metaphysics, psychology, etc.