Robert Grosseteste

"Grosseteste's experimental method was quite different from a method of controlled experiment. Grosseteste made no use of such a method in his writings, deriving his conclusions on the basis of a mix of considerations, appealing to authority and everyday observation (the Latin “experimentum”). He made use of thought experiments and certain metaphysical assumptions, such as the assumption of a principle of “least action.”"

"In 1307 a general application was made to Clement V. for the purpose by the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, who sent one of their number, Robert de Killingworth, to Rome with that object and also by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, London, the Abbot and convent of Osney, King Edward the First, Greenfield, Archbishop of York, and the University of Oxford. ...The most interesting testimony is that from the University of Oxford, which says that he never did anything connected with the office he held or his pastoral care through fear of any man, and that he was ready, if need be, to suffer martyrdom for what he believed to be right. It also speaks of his magnificent services to the cause of science, and of the admirable character of his "regency" at Oxford. What was the precise influence which prevented his canonisation is unknown, though his attitude of sturdy independence may have contributed to the result."

"The treatise on light (De luce)... reflects a significant influence of Aristotle's scientific thinking. ...Its model of the expanding universe stimulated speculation as to whether in 1927... was aware of Grosseteste's thinking when he introduced the modern 'Big Bang' model... Grosseteste develops the consequences of his metaphysics of light towards a physics of light... This connection between the perfect heavens and the imperfect earth is an astonishing intellectual feat, rooted on the premise that there exists a fundamental unity..."

"He was a man of excellent wisdom, and of most lucid power of teaching, as well as a pattern of all virtue. The good abilities which he had from nature he cultivated by the precepts of Scripture, so as to form a noble soul. When he was Master of Arts he wrote briefly upon the 'Book of Posterior Analytics.' He also put forth treatises on the 'Sphere,' the 'Art of Reckoning,' and many other things useful in philosophy. He was a doctor skilled in three tongues, the Latin, the Hebrew, and the Greek; and many things did he bring forth from the tongue of the Hebrews and caused many to be translated from the Greek."

"To compare him to the modern doctors is as the comparison of the sun to the moon when it is eclipsed."

"Light, according to Grosseteste, was the first form of corporeity, and from it all else followed. Multiplying itself from a single point infinitely and equally on all sides, light formed a sphere and together with this action arose matter. Following the expansion of light to its ultimate extent came a phase differentiation caused by condensation and rarefaction, which led in turn to the separation of the heavens and earth..."

"Robert Grosseteste... stands, -headed, facing two directions. One face... evoking a metaphysics of light that embraces hosts of angelic beings and emanations of light that are active in God's creation... His other face gazes earthward to a future... a mathematical physics grounded in experimental observation."