III - He studies Physick and Law: enters the service of the Bishop of Hereford.

Summary

After compleating his philosophic studies, Grossetete applied himself to the study of Physick, and the Canon Law, two sciences which taking care of our bodys and estates were then, and are still in so much greater request among men and the more lucrative to the professors as the generality of men are more tenaciously affected to their life and property, and more liberal towards the defenders of either than to any other profession. And this might be one reason why Grossetete being in low circumstances of fortune applied first to those lucrative professions as a means to help himself forward in the more sublime study of Theology. And here Grossetete's universal genius excelled no less than in the other Liberal Arts, and soon introduced him into the family and friendship of the noble William de Vere, Bishop of Hereford from 1186 to 1199. On which occasion the Bishop of Hereford received a letter of compliment from the famous Giraldus Cambrensis then Archdeacon of Brecken, and since Bishop Elect of St Davids. This letter is so short and at the same so honourable to Dr Grossetete, that its worth the Reader's curiosity to read it and our pains to transcribe it. ‘He that interceeds for good men’, saith Giraldus to the Bishop,

Shews his own judgement according to Symmachus, as much as he seeks their interest. Hence having lately heard, and that with the highest satisfaction, that Master Robert Grossetete had been admitted into your Lordship's family, and friendship, I have but one thing to beg, which is that your Lordship's favours may equal the merits of the Subject. For I know of a certainty, that his service will be doubly and trebly useful to your Lordship, not only by transacting business and deciding ecclesiastical causes, but by preserving your Lordship's health of body, he being thoroughly skilled in both those sciences. The more, as these talents, which of all others are the most lucrative in our age, are in his person united to, and founded on the knowledge of all the Liberal Arts, as well as an extensive erudition in literature, and supported by a wonderful parity of manners, which illustrate and inhance his other abilities. And whereas the generality of those who are possessed of the forementioned talents are not always endued with equal fidelity, Grossetete's fidelity is equal to all his other virtues and shining qualities.