Editing Robert Grosseteste (section)

===Hostility to Jews and Judaism===
Grosseteste has a mixed reputation among scholars regarding his attitudes to Jews and Judaism. He was certainly hostile to usury, but had an interest in the relationship between the Old Law and the New. He intervened when Simon de Montfort [[Leicester#Medieval|expelled]] the Jews of Leicester, but his views on the expulsion itself are unclear.{{sfn|Tolan|2023|p=104}}

He appears to have become more hostile to Jews in his later life, and this can be traced through his theological investigations. Earlier in his life, while lecturing in Oxford, he analysed the Psalms and Paul's [[Letter to the Galatians]]. He concluded that the Jews are wedded to the past and their lineage, rather than a search for salvation, following the work of [[Chrysostom]].{{sfn|Tolan|2023|pp=106–7}} In his analysis of Galatians and ''De cessatione legalium'', citing [[Jerome]] he sets out his understanding of the status of the Old Law, and concludes that it had been "made void" by the resurrection of Christ, and that the Jewish faith was therefore heretical and blasphemous.{{sfn|Tolan|2023|pp=106–109}} He followed the view of Augustine and [[Innocent III]], who had reiterated these in recent [[Papal Bull]]s that the Jews were guilty for death of Christ, but just as Cain, who had killed Abel, was allowed to live as punishment, so Jews were to live in exile and servitude as punishment for their sin. Jews were not to be allowed to live in luxury from the proceeds of usury, and any Christian ruler allowing or the "oppression" of Christians through usury would be share the Jews' punishment in the next life.{{sfn|Tolan|2023|p=109}} Nevertheless, as Bishop, he seems to have taken few practical actions against Jews, in contrast, for example to his associate [[Walter de Cantilupe]]. One concrete example can be found in the mid 1240s, where in a letter to his archdeacons, he warns them among many other matters, that they were ensure that Christians and Jews do not associate.{{sfn|Tolan|2023|p=110}}

In 1242, Grosseteste translated the Greek text ''Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs'' into Latin. It was among his most influential works, being cited by [[Vincent de Beauvais]], [[Bonaventure]] and [[Roger Bacon]]. The book describes the dying words of Jacob's sons, in which they foretell the coming of Christ as the Messiah. The text appeared to prove that Jews had been told of the Messiah, and had written the prophecies down, but had then deliberately ignored and suppressed them. [[Matthew Paris]] for instance made this interpretation explicit, saying Grosseteste had exposed the deceit of the Jews to their "great confusion".{{sfn|Tolan|2023|pp=112–3}} 

Grosseteste began to study Hebrew as well as Greek, and although he may have lacked proficiency, spent considerable effort attempting to better understand the Psalms in their original language. His goal was to eliminate conflict between Christians and Jews, or to "confirm the faithful and convert the infidel".{{sfn|Tolan|2023|pp=113–4}} The evolution of Grosseteste's views from the Augustinian view of Jewish ignorance and punishment to one where Jews appeared to be stubbornly and knowingly rejecting Christ, was part of a wider shift that was taking place, leading to greater suspicion and intolerance.{{sfn|Tolan|2023|pp=113–4}}