SOURCE: Purday, Kevin M. “The Diffinicio Eucariste of Robert Grosseteste.” Journal of Theological Studies 27, no. 2 (October 1976): 381-90.

In the following essay, Purday discusses the theological issues described in the Diffinicio Eucaristie,, arguing that the work, whose authorship has been under dispute, should be attributed to Grosseteste.

The 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 considerable 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...